To be a fear master
by AninMukami
Summary: Who says IT is exclusive to Derry? Isn't fear a universal feeling? Haunted towns are declared haunted only once adults aknowledge there is a reason to be afraid, right? A series of murders or sudden accidents and dissappearances don't all have to do with an ill fate.
1. Chapter 1

Professor Samuel Oak had barely begun to manage a sort of neutral face to show his newly orphaned grandchildren when the doorbell rang.

He would have to cry over the death of his son and daughter-in-law later; the children had to have someone who seemed to know what to do and be strong for them. But who _really_ knows what to do when the father buries the son and not the other way around?

Dissing the lack of logic life seems to harbor at times and how science isn't, regrettably, too much of an accuarate field of what enables human beings to predict destiny, he stood up to get the door.

A scrawny, tall old woman dressed in black with a stern brow stood facing the professor.

-Good afternoon. Professor Samuel Oak? -she asked behind thick, round glasses

\- It's me.

He looked behind the woman at the two children with tear-swollen faces.

-Hello, kids! –he did the best he could to make his half smile look sincere-

Daisy, the oldest, muttered a weak hello back, without lifting her gaze off the floor. Of course, little Gary wouldn't ease the scowl or grunt with a hey. Six is not the same age as fifteen.

-Professor, I come from the funerary home. I was tasked with the delivery of your grandchildren, who have no living relatives other than you who could possibly raise them to be successful members of our society. Here, on your son's will, it says…

Professor Oak had stopped listening to the old woman babble on about laws of custody; he walked toward his grandkids to get them inside the house; he put one arm around Daisy's shoulder and carried Gary with the other, and closed the door on the still babbling lady's face.

-Gramps, that was cool. Old lady should keep quiet about something she knows nothing about. -Gary had finally muttered something and looked his grandpa in the eye. The professor smiled sincerely this time. So he was like him and his son, after all.

Gary... Daisy... you understand why you're going to live with me from here on? - of course Daisy knew, and she was a strong young lady, so she should be fine, in time... but what about Gary? He was only six... children realize what death means until a year later when they turn seven, a lot like Pokémon that learn a new move when they grow in level. How would he handle it..?

 **Several months later**

Daisy resumed her studies after two weeks after the funeral, and acquired a strange obsession with mechanics and ground-type Pokémon. This was logical if one knew about her parents' car accident. She didn't want to learn to drive either; she said she'd rather construct devices than use them. Other than that, she was doing fine and wanted to become an Earth Gym Leader. On the other hand, Gary wasn't as well-behaved and calm anymore...

The professor had to spend a lot of time working most days and the kid rarely had anyone to play with, so he snuck into the Pokémon corral behind the lab, which was dangerous because he was a child less tall than a Pidgeot!

However, most Pokémon seemed to adore him... when he wasn't poking them when they were sleeping or startling the bird pokémon and the Ponytas, or jumped on a huge Snorlax's belly, which angered his grandpa. As these actions made Oak go chase his grandson instead of working, Gary kept doing it. He already knew all the escape routes for whenever he was grounded, anyway.

Hey gramps, why did mom and dad die? -Gary asked before going to bed one night-

They... had a car accident... they were badly wounded and couldn't be saved in time.

You mean it was just bad luck?

...Something like it; we call it fate... it means it's something you cannot predict but will happen no matter what you do; you can't bring the dead back to life. They're off to another dimension now, but they're always watching over you, and still love you like they did when they were here.-he tried to tuck the child into his bed, but Gary kept pushing the bedspread

But you don't go and die when you really want to stay!

Listen, Gary... we all die some day, both you and me as well, and we cannot know when that day is gonna come, but it's usually when you're very old... but life, most likely, doesn't end there... our bodies get decomposed, but our soul is not measurable by science... which means it's beyond our reach to know what happens, but most of us can tell there is something more to life than...

What's decompose?

When your body slowly becomes one with the soil... the flesh and all your substances turn into earth, and earth feeds plants and plant Pokémon... it's a lot like the fruit that stays too long in the fridge. First the flesh goes, then the seeds... but the soul, or the body, doesn't feel any of that.

So what Mattie says is true! My parents are skeletons! And didn't want to see us anymore so they got themselves into a car accident!

That's not true! I saw they were turned into ashes, so they can't be skeletons. Who's Mattie?

A kid from preschool who was bothering me because I have no parents. So you burned my parents? -Gary was a little scared now

No, no, Gary... we only burned their bodies to put them in an urn and be able to visit them in a symbolic way... to still feel like they are on this world with us while we have them in our hearts. And about the kid, don't listen to what he says; it's complete nonsense, because accidents are called so because nobody wants them to happen! And I assure you, your parents would have loved to stay with you, but life had other plans for you...

What plan so evil could involve killing my parents? Almost all of the time, my only play company are other trainers's Pokémon... I wish I could play with dad or mom again... I think it's my fault they're gone! I wasn't a good kid... I was always messing up the house... -he sobbed lightly-

Professor Oak had an idea.

It's nobody's fault when someone dies. Unless you killed them. But look, in everything bad, there has to be something good. Your parents's fate is indeed something neither you or I deserve (imagine, my son died!), but maybe you wouldn't have been able to meet and get to know all those Pokémon well and discovered your love for them if it hadn't been because of that... or would you?

No... I hadn't seen so many kinds of them before! I wanna meet more.

Maybe you could be a trainer yourself one day, and since you live at a Pokémon Lab, you can make great use of the information here!

I'm going to be so amazing, nobody will ever think my parents are skelletons! Everyone will even want my autograph like famous people's! I'll do it for me to be good, and for them to like what they see from wherever they are!

You're already good, but I like how that sounds! Here, have this ying yang necklace; my dad gave it to me... it means what I just said: that there is a little good in bad, and a little bad in good; you just make out the most of it.

Wow! -Gary eyed it before he put it around his neck

I'm glad you like it. Now, sleep well, Gary, you gotta go to school tomorrow.

I don't wanna.

You will! You have to be a good student if you want your Pokémon license someday!

Gary scowled. Professor Oak laughed. - Every Pokémon journey starts even before you get your first Pokémon. You've got to learn to read, for example! What if you get lost and a sign on the street points out the goal?

-I can read small signs!

-That's not what I mean! Now, I have to go to bed, too; tomorrow's a long day!

And with that, he kissed his grandson's forehead, turned off the light and left the room.

Gary never took off that necklace, not even for the shower.

Professor Oak didn't actually go to bed because he needed to finish a report on his latest research subject, but he couldn't stop thinking about Gary's trouble with death... he knew kids were usually mean, but surely not all of them were like that... were they? And although he seemed to love hanging out with Pokémon, it wasn't safe letting him into the corral like that when there were irritable Nidokings and Gyarados roaming around!

He had to find Gary some safer company... Of course! The neighbor, Delia Ketchum, had a son only 2 years younger than his grandson, and it was his birthday in a week! He wasn't in preschool yet, so it was perfect! Gary would go to the party whether he thought he was too cool for it or not.


	2. Chapter 2

Gary was lying wide awake. Altough it was good to hear his parents were not completely gone, if they were watching him and had seen all the times he'd pranked his gramps, they could be angry that even then he wouldn't behave... But he was so bored all alone! He was afraid that maybe he had really driven his parents crazy... he had scratched the car with a stick "to draw a Meowth" after all... maybe that scratch went in deeper than he thought..?

 _You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?_

-You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?

An androginous voice that seemed to have come out of thin air in front of his bed interrupted his thoughts and startled him. He let out a tiny shriek and pulled the covers over his neck, hoping it had been nothing.

-What's the matter Gary Oak? Can't see well in the dark?

Gary turned on the light. The voice laughed in a hollow, groggly sound,

-Still can't find me, little boy? How about I draw on your wall so you can trace me and find me... like a game of hide and seek! Aaaw you don't wanna play? -Gary was paralyzed by fear and tried to find his voice to call Daisy or Gramps, but he seemed to have gone mute- A blue crayon was lifted into thin air and made a few traces on the wall... it sounded metallic somehow, and the drabble turned quickly into a picture of two adults and two kids.

-Still can't find me? You must be bad even at this! -the voice cried angrily while the heads of the adults got sepparated from their stick bodies by a red trail of liquid crayon. The boy finally screamed and ran to his grandfather's study to find him bent over an important-looking paper.

Gramps, something's in my room!

The professor got up in a reluctant fashion, but followed his youngest grandchild to his room. To Gary's surprise, the drawing was gone; Oak only saw a normal room with a few of the boy's toys and a blue crayon on the floor.

-What is it, Gary?

-But there was...! An invisible thing was talking to me and..! Drew a... on this wall! -Gary stuttered. He was shaking-

-I don't see anything here... are you sure you weren't dreaming?

-It might have been my parents?! Are they like, ghosts? Are there ghost Pokémon?

-No, why would your parents draw on the walls? Ghost Pokémon don't speak like us; they only say their name, like all other Pokémon, and do not invade inhabited houses. Maybe you're just tired and didn't realize you were asleep.

-I'm serious! That thing drew me, my sis and my parents on the wall, and cut my parents's heads off!

-Look, it really is nobody's fault... I get you're angry they're gone, but I'm here for you so nothing's gonna happen to you. Now, you should sleep; it's past midnight.

The still doubtful seven-year-old climbed back into bed. He tried to dismiss it as a bad dream as well, but could have sworn he heard the voice muttering "you've met with a terrible fate, or a fate met with a terrible you? Hahaha!" Not funny, Gary thought, trying to fend it off as his own imagination conjured up by grief.

Next day, Gary had purple circles around his eyes. He didn't feel like talking to anybody at preschool, like all the other days he'd been there, so he continued on teachig himself to read. He wanted to be better than the other kids at least at that; if fate decided he couldn't have parents, he would have something better than the other kids!

-You are starting to look like your parents, all white and with skull black eyes! -Mattie interrupted pointing at the spiky-haired boy. Gary stood up, sick of this kid and his two friends making fun of him for the only week he'd lived in Pallet Town for being an orphan. Also because he was the only one who could read; apparently, other kids hated kids who were clearly smarter.

-I hope your parents die! -Gary muttered at the other child, who attempted to fire a punch before the teacher came to see what was going on and grabbed his arm.

-Hey Matthew! Cut the crap! We'll go talk to the principal. Remember him from last time?

The rest of the kids were staring at Gary, his book, and how the teacher left with a sobbing Mattie.

Gary just glared until they disappeared from his sight.

-Hey... -Gary paid no heed to a small voice- How did you do it? -A girl named Molly insisted, and Gary finally turned to face her.

-It's a secret -Gary grinned. He knew he'd done nothing, but that the others might think he did would make them have a degree of respect toward him for a while.

-Wow! Hey... um... we were playing house, wanna play with us?

-No, I just wanna read.

-Ok... - the girl looked disappointed, but didn't insist

In the classroom next door, which was the kindergarden classroom, another boy was playing with four other kids.

He was pretending to lead an expedition to discover a treasure; the others followed him eagerly. He seemed full of life and carefree. Yet he hid something similar to what the boy in the preschool class had tried to conceal until the teacher had told everyone "to help him make friends": Ash Ketchum didn't have a father either.

On his way back to the Lab he now had to call home, Gary Oak encountered a dandelion seed floating in the air. It looked so pretty against the descending 4pm sun... this, besides learning 5 new letters before anyone else in his class, was probably the best thing on that school day.

He followed the floating spark even if that took him out of the road home into the empty street courtyard. He didn't think much of getting lost today. The wind blew harder and the seed suddenly landed inside a large trashcan that only had a small gap between the lid and the actual can. Gary took a peek out of curiosity into the foul-smelling tonel and saw two big yellow eyes. He almost ran away before it called him:

-Hey Gary! -the voice was fairly androgynous, but friendlier than the one he'd heard the night before- Are you looking for this piece of magic?

Gary was startled. The thing was actually a clown, and he didn't have yellow eyes but black ones, kind of like his gramps's, and he knew his name!

-Uh... yes? I guess so. What are you doing in the trashcan, anyway?

-Well, you see, the circus didn't find a place to park, what with the pay-to-park and everything that is supposed to happen only in Mexico... so we crammed the whole circus in here!

-In a trashcan? -Gary lifted one eyebrow-

-They won't look for the cotton candy, roasted peanuts and lots of fun inside a trashcan to give us a fine police ticket for bad parking, would they, Gary?

-Of course not! But you're just being silly... you can't squeeze an entire...-but it did smell like a circus! Gary was hungry and loved popcorn, so he couldn't help raising his nose to sniff it with a small smile that hadn't appeared in the whole day.-

-Wow..! The circus really is there! -Gary said, excited. But then he detected other smells mixed with those of the fun and joy... something beneath all those layers of color and laughter smelled rotten, barren and bitter. It reminded him of when something had been in the fridge for too long and it got ugly and kind of creepy like it would sprout claws at any given moment.

-Yes, it is! Wanna join for today? There's lots of colorful, floating balloons! And maybe even your family is having fun here with me-the white-faced red-haired clown's voice started sounding as if he had thick phlegms in the throat. Now Gary was beginning to think neither the yellow eyes he saw before or the rotten smell were his imagination.-

-Join today and float like everything else with us... like your magic seed... -the clown insisted, stretching a hand to grab Gary's head- The boy saw the clown's painted smile become like a Golbat's mouth with more teeth and reacted at once: a scream, a sprint, and a quick glance back to make sure he wasn't chased.

There was a man passing by the whole scene whistling, and didn't seem to notice the sharp toothed clown almost eat Gary's head off. He continued his way at peace, and Gary kept sprinting until on yet another back glance, he bumped into someone.

A shorter boy with black hair like ash and black eyes was now under him.

-Hey! Get off me! Why were you not looking forward! -the younger boy said, irritated

-You should have moved your butt, since you saw me coming! -the older, taller boy argued arrogantly, feeling miserable inside

-That's not how it works; you were running!

-It worked this way today, and you better not stand in my way or you'll regret it.

-You're the new kid, right? You're really mean..!

-That's right. Who needs to be nice? For what? You'll lose whatever you make out of being nice, anyway.

-That's not true.

-Whatever. I gotta go home. This is annoying and a waste of time!

-You were the one who started it!

-Was not!

-Was too!

-Whatever. -Gary turned and walked on, but suddenly,

-Hey, what's your name?

-Will you leave me alone if I tell you?!

-...

-It's Gary Oak.

-I'm Ash Ketchum! And one day, I'll be a Pokémon Master just like my dad! You wait and see when I get there; you won't ever bump on me like that again! I'll be invincible!

-I'll get there first, Ashy-boy! Don't forget that. -Gary yelled back

Ash grunted and both boys left their tiny "battle arena" in opposite directions.

Gary actually kind of liked that younger boy, and the fact someone else liked Pokémon as much as he did, but he wouldn't admit it. Besides, he had a much creepier thing on his mind.

What in the whole crap had been that thing? He was sure he didn't imagine it, but nobody else took notice of an abnormal event like a clown in a trashcan.

The thing had said something about having a fun day with his family... as in mom and dad too? He'd wanted to be there... but was scared of the big teeth. Gary Oak realized the only way to see his parents again was either dreaming, or dying. He cried as soon as he got inside the house above the Lab, which was empty.


	3. Chapter 3

When he got too hungry to stay in his room, mulling over how he could have wrecked the car before his parents drove away on it so they'd stayed and not get their necks snapped, Gary left his room to look for something in the fridge. He saw a newspaper professor Oak had been reading.

The headline said ANOTHER VIRIDIAN KID MISSING.

Gary had learned a few new letters, so he decided it was practice time. AnOThEr... Missing... children... Pallet Town... Viridian City... found with no arm... serial murders... unknown... This article was scary, and he didn't want more scary events related to death that day. He thought about telling gramps about the clown, but decided against it; he wouldn't believe him, just like the other man thought it was perfectly normal to see a kid running from a trashcan. So he ate and snuck into the Poké Corral to visit a Growlithe he'd grown fond of before going to bed. Maybe he could make the fire puppy spit a flame for him this time...

Ash Ketchum arrived home right before the sun went down. His mom hadn't even been worried; she had been too distracted cooking a new dish.

-Hey, Ash! I'm glad you're here, dinner will be ready in a minute, so you'll get to try my new dish freshly made!

-Um great, mom... -Ash sounded discouraged, unlike his usual cheery self when it came to food

-Are you all right? Did something happen at school?

-No...

Delia Ketchum knew that face too well; Ash was lying.

-Are you suuuure? -she insisted, sitting next to Ash at the dinner table

-Well... I met this new kid, Gary... he's so mean! Bumped into me and blamed me for it, and then said he wants to be a Pokémon master too! He's bigger and stronger than me, and _mean_. He could maybe do it better...

Delia laughed at the enphasis on "mean".

-Pokémon don't really like mean people, my boy! Besides, age doesn't make you better or worse, but how you treat those around you... you already have that advantage, right?

-Right, but...

-Give him a chance; he's probably new and didn't want to be here in the first place... maybe he's nice if you're nice to him, too! -she ruffled his hair- Your birthday's on Sunday anyway, so put a smile on that face, honey!

Ash didn't believe it entirely, but though somebody who liked Pokémon could be mean, he couldn't be really a bad guy, could he? The new dish smelled delicious, so he soon forgot about Gary and his antics.

It was Saturday at the Oaks's Lab-house, and Samuel Oak decided to take his grandkids on a town tour. Daisy already knew most of it, but Gary only knew the way from home to school. He actually kind of liked it; it was peaceful and clean, unlike Saffron City, where he originally came from. Also, Pokémon just hung around like it was their own town and humans just happened to live next door. He loved that.

-Grandpa, how do you do it not to get bored here? There is little to do for fun around here... -Daisy said, half-jokingly

-That's true only if you look for city-activities in your to-do list! Each place has their own charm; here, for example, you can go stargazing every night... I bet you can't see the stars in Saffron, huh?

-No, actually I remember seeing them during a blackout, but I hadn't really thought about it... grandpa, do you have a telescope?

-That's my granddaughter! I like people with an enthusiasm for knowledge. Of course I do! Hopefully the sky will be clear tonight...

Gary was looking through the window in the back of the car at the houses and people's activities. Lots of kids seemed to be enjoying the playground. Apparently, there was a big pond nearby, but there was nobody there. Great, a place he could explore for himself! Maybe he could meet his own wild Pokémon friends...

-Gary, what are you thinking about?

-Nothing, gramps... we can go to the playground any time, right?

-As long as it's daytime, yes...

But Gary Oak wasn't one to stay inside the box, and he would not make an exception today.

After lunch at the Lab, he told gramps and Daisy he'd go to the playground. The professor was glad Gary was finally having some sort of intention of hanging around other kids, so he didn't question the bulged up pocket on Gary's sweatshirt. At least he wouldn't have to keep an eye on the Poké-corral today.

Gary had brought some bait he'd taken away from the Rattata enclosure at the Lab. Those Rattatas were becoming fat anyway. Some wild Pokémon would probably appreciate it more.

The pond was about 20 minutes time from the Lab at a child's pace, and Gary felt triumphant when he noticed other children were intrigued by his detour on the playground towards the pond, and even more so to notice they didn't seem to dare to follow him.

One kid even shouted, That's dangerous!

But not for Gary Oak. He could fend for himself. He knew how to swim and was good with Pokémon, so what's the worst that could happen? Maybe a scrapped knee or something like that.


	4. Chapter 4

The pond was larger than it looked from the car up close. It had lots of white water lillies covering most of it, too. And he hadn't noticed a small river flowing out of it. Maybe it was natural? That made it more interesting. It smelled of plants and slightly like pond water, but it didn't stink like the ponds he'd seen before at Saffron City. There was a big rock on the other side too! He would have to cross some tall grass to get there. Seemed exciting. It was so quiet he could only hear himself breathing and his footsteps creaking the tall grass. Somehow, he couldn't see any living being other than the plants, which was weird in a pond.

-Gary!

Did the pond smell so much like mud before, or is it because he had run to the very edge of it? The voice was eerily familiar too, but, it couldn't be! ...Could it?

-Dad?

-Gary, we've missed you so much! -his mom and dad appeared to be swimming in the pond, yet he could only see the water ripples in the middle of it.

-Mom! Where are you?

-We're here, Gary dear! - They dove up again. There they were smiling at him from the middle of the water, surrounded by white lillies. A few tears started to blurr Gary's vision. He wiped them quickly, as he was afraid they'd disappear the second he couldn't see them.

-I'm coming! Don't go again, please! - The child put one foot inside the water, testing the depth.

He could see up to his parent's waists, so maybe it wouldn't be a tiring swim. Oddly enough, there had been white earth lillies around their coffins... and he could only see their bodies up to the waist during the funeral as well... he found this assosiation unsettling, but continued anyway... he'd missed them so much!

But the water smelled worse from the inside of the pond. Something wasn't right; his parents were smiling, laughing and beconning him, and didn't seem to have noticed they'd been out of his life for an entire week. He was already knee deep when he noticed this, and stood still all of a sudden.

-Hey... are you my parents? Who was in the coffin then? - it hurt him to ask that, but did ghosts appear at daytime too?

-Of course we are, Gary! -his father's voice had never sounded this cave-like, either... but it had been normal just a moment ago! What was going on?

-Don't you want a balloon? We brought one for you... - now mom sounded a bit like a man... Gary didn't remember that.

He then realized something was seriously wrong, and remembered the clown from the day before. One step backwards, without getting the eyes off the sort of ghosts of his deceased family. Another one... and as he was about to get the last footstep out of the water, a lily root shaped like a hand wrapped around his left ankle and pulled him down.

Gary screamed in terror as he tripped and lay face down on the sticky, greenish, bubbling mud, but nothing reacted; not even a bird flew away scared by the noise. He was all alone, and it seemed he wasn't strong enough to drag himself through the mud, which worked like a quicksand and threatened to get him into the water, and after a while without breathing, below the ground. His hands were getting stiff from the cold water and earth covering them. He hoped that maybe, just maybe, his real parents would come to help him, so he turned his head to the middle of the pond to see if they'd appeared again, but he only saw the owner of the plant-like hand: a skelleton covered in mud, lama and lily roots.

\- When you're down here with us, you'll float like us too! - it called in his father's voice in glee

Gary, after disolving his last hope for help in a torrent of tears, saw a sharp stone right before the lower half of his body had been dragged into the water.

Enraged a monster was using his dad's image, he cut the lily "hand" off his leg and it let go of him with a shrieck of animalisitc pain. The child dragged himself into the tall grass to hide, and in the pond, instead of his parents, he saw the clown from the trashcan standing on the lilypads. He was laughing with his big, blood-red painted smile at him, pointing his white gloved index finger. Next thing, the clown jumped into the water in slow motion with some balloons in hand and waved goodbye. He sank in a spiral. When he was gone, Gary could still hear his sinister laugh. He chose to remain hidden behind some bushes for a bit more. Else, another hand would probably be coming to get him down into the coffin water.

After a while, around the time the sun starts to go down, birds started chirping again, and some frogs could be heard. Gary stood up with caution. No trace of the evil ghoul or whatever it was. He sighed in relief, but it didn't last long, because he heard footsteps behind him.

He turned around in rage, but it turned into joy and relief again, because it was a Poliwag. It was wagging its tail like it wanted to play.


	5. Chapter 5

-Hey! -Gary said, almost laughing

-Poli! -it smiled... one can still tell when tadpole-pokémon smile, despite the facial differences with humans

-What's up? - Poliwag started smelling his sweatshirt

-Ohh.. that's right; I have something for you! - he took out the bait to put it on his hand

-Wag... - The tadpole Pokémon hesitated a little and finally ate the bait, and wagged its tail in joy

-You're funny! -Gary laughed at the jumping Poliwag that was eating and wagging its tail at the same time

It was cute. Gary scratched its belly gently. The spiral kind of intrigued him. What did Poliwag use it for in combat? And also, did it ever encounter that dreadful clown?

-Hey, tell me something... I know you can't talk, but you understand... is there something down there in the middle of the pond?

Poliwag's mood shifted to shyness. It shook his head-body as in no and stared at Gary, a bit scared and concerned

-Forget I asked that, I'm not gonna go there, ever!

The walking tadpole seemed pleased with the answer

-But do you or your companions ever go there?

Apparently, Poliwag had had enough. It made a slight inclination and bounced out of sight, once more squeaking "Poli!"

Gary was puzzled. Then it hadn't been his imagination? Or had it? It was gone now, and the sun was almost down, so he should, too. The good thing was that the Poliwag had seemed to like him, and playing with him for a little while had been fun. He tried to see the good side to take the coffin-like event off his mind, but his success at it wasn't as big as he'd hoped. He probably shouldn't go there again.

-Gary, you're wet! And it's nearly night time, where have you been? Come back BEFORE the sun is down next time!

-Sorry gramps... there was a puddle and I fell. I lost track of time.

Professor Oak knew Gary wasn't one to fall, but prefered not to ask too many questions. If it was important, his grandson would ask for help; maybe it had been a petty typical child accident after all.

-All right. Don't get home too late again. Want pizza? Come, before the Pidgeottos find out - Oak laughed, and Gary lifted an eyebrow skeptically- seriously! A trainer caught a new pack of Pidgeottos, and I had to order a new pizza because they snatched the other one! -Gary widened his eyes at his grandfather- ...I know! -the professor got a sudden idea- Let's eat, and let them in after so they have to chase us with the remaining pizza pieces, all right?

-Great idea! -Gary said, overjoyed- is it pepperoni and mushroom?

-Of course! I know that's your favorite!

The phone was located away from the children's quarters in the Lab-house, and the youngest was likely already asleep; he was exhausted after the Pidgeotto frenzy in the kitchen.

A number was dialed and the waiting tone droned on. Professor Oak had to admit it had been a fun game a couple of hours before, and almost considered doing that kind of ludic activity more often, but then he realized how tired he felt and decided against it. He wasn't as young and energetic as he was when he'd had his first and only son.

Finally, the screen came to life to show Delia Ketchum's living room and her son Ash brushing his teeth perched on top of the sofa.

-Hello? Oh, Professor Oak! How are you?

-Fine... awful tired, but happy I got to play with my grandkid today... how about you?

-It's great. I'm still organizing Ash's birthday tomorrow! He's turning 6... how old are your grandkids, Sam?

-The girl's 15 and the boy's 7. He'll be 8 in a few months!

-Oh, it's a wonderful age, isn't it? -Delia said dreamily

-Mom, -Ash protested- who's that on the phone?

-Honey, say hi to Professor Oak, our neighbor!

-You mean Gary's dad?! -Ash spat his toothbrush, but didn't notice

-No, Ash, I'm Gary's grandpa! Have you met my grandkid yet?

Ash fell silent and made a scowl, to which the professor laughed

-That's all I need to know. Hey Ash, I have a favor to ask of you... Gary's teacher tells me he has a difficult time making friends... I was wondering if me and Gary could come to your birthday party tomorrow! I promise he'll behave. -Ash was thoughtful, but Delia interrupted his relfections

-Of course you can, we'll be glad to have you here! We'll be waiting for you at 11am!

-Thank you, Delia and Ash!

-Mom?!

-Gramps?! -Gary shielded his eyes from the sudden solar beam that entered the room when professor Oak opened the curtains in Gary's room next day.

-Good morning to you too! Get up, Gary! I said we'd be at Ash's party on time! -Samuel Oak seemed to want to go to the party way more than Gary Oak did. He was good friends with Delia after all, and hadn't been to a party in a while.

-I don't wanna. That kid is annoying. -Gary turned his back on the window and covered his face with the blankets

-You will! -his grandfather pulled the covers off Gary, and the boy curled up and glared at him, pouting- Come on, at least try it; there will be other kids besides Ash. Try it, and if you don't like it, we can go home early. There's candy and cake at kids's parties too...

-Ok. -Gary sat up - It's almost next door, right, gramps?

Gary went hand in hand with professor Oak to Ash's house, which was full of balloons, something of which Gary wasn't so fond of anymore.

-Oh, hi guys! -Delia waved from the courtyard while she arranged a flock of baloons- Party's in the backyard! Come in, come in!

Gary noticed the yellow house was almost next to the infamous pond. It was divided by some bushes though; it shouldn't be a problem.

Several other kids were there, and Gary only knew Ash from the day they literally bumped into each other. They birthday boy was surrounded by other children, holding five balloons, pretending to fly away with them, only to fall on his butt and laugh it off. Soon, some of the other kids were betting on how many balloons it would take to lift a kid.

Gary couldn't help but stare in jealousy. He didn't want to get anywhere near balloons, but he couldn't help noticing he wanted all Ash had... his mom was there at his birthday, he lived with his parents, had a lot of seemingly good friends who liked him enough not to laugh at him in a mean way despite having fallen on his butt just now, and he also already had a dream he was so enthusiastic about... but didn't seem to work hard at it at all... like he thought he didn't need to.

This made Gary frown in contempt. It appeared to be a totally normal day for the ashy-haired boy! Just like for the other kids, but Ash had something they didn't have, though he couldn't put his finger on it.

Despite the horrors balloons evoked in him, he went to the entrance quickly and grabbed the front door's decoration balloons and a tiny cactus in a very small plastic pot. He made sure it could float tied to all of the party-annoucing decorations before he went back in.

-Hey Ash! -he'd promised gramps to behave well today, so no Ashy-boy name calling on Ash's birthday- Look at this! You can't make something as fat and heavy as a kid fly, but check this out; I'm a wizard!

Gary let go of the cactus and it was actually floating before Ash's eyes! Ash gasped in awe

-You didn't seriously think you could make a kid fly on balloons, could you, Ashy...Ash?

-I bet I can make something even heavier than the cactus fly! -Ash objected

-Oh yeah? Let's make a contest! Let's see which of us can make the heaviest object fly, only with the balloons your mom hung around the house!

-Prepare to lose, Gary!

-We'll see about that!

-THE CACTUS IS FLYING! -one of the mothers yelled hysterically- my precious little girl could get her face spiked up by a falling cactus..! -she ran in a panic attack, her mouth foamed and she fainted. She looked like she was breathing, so everyone else left her alone.

-Oh, my! It's an adorable children's antic! Let's take a picture for the album -Delia said instead of getting the cactus down, and took out a camera. Professor Oak knew whose work of art it was, and facepalmed, but hid a smile and continued to eat cupcakes. Mmm, delicious! He thought, grabbing one more.

Several party guests from kindergarden and preschool had gathered around Gary and Ash. They knew Ash liked contests, but they'd never seen him this fired up over a competition game.

Ash went to one side of the house, and Gary to the other to collect balloons; Gary was faster than Ash, so he had way more than him within minutes; there were no more balloons in sight; time to collect an object and make it fly!

Ash knew where everything was, so he tried some ornaments from the living room; an ashtray made of silver, (No, Ash, don't make the silver fly! It could fly away forever! His mom had said when she caught him grabbing it), then a Voltorb alarm clock; perfect!

Gary had to sneak into the house stealthily because it was supposed to be bad manners to do so, but he had to look for an object light enough to fly but heavy enough to win! He refrained from using more plants because it felt like cheating (what happened to the cactus anyway?), so something heavier... a small soda bottle! Easy to tie and heavy enough. On to win!

-So, what's your object, Ash?

-This alarm clock! Yours?

Some gasping from the audience was heard

-The soda bottle! With soda.

More gasping

-All right Gary! Yours is lighter but you have more balloons! May the best win!

-Don't worry, I will! -Gary replied smirking

Meanwhile, a cactus fell on a Dodrio. Some bird shriecking was heard on the distance by professor Oak. It wasn't mating season, what could have possibly upset that bird so much?

Gary's bottle was already tied when Ash's Voltorb clock's round form just didn't seem to be quite as tie-able. Ash started looking anxious and looked up for clues. A girl from his class approached him

-Hey, maybe if you open it you can tie it from the inside half!

-Have my shoelace to tie it, too! -another boy said

So the alarm clock was finally tied; it was time to let the objects fly!

-Ok, 3...2..1! -a third kid counted

Both objects flew up high, but Gary was amazed the alarm clock was flying too! He didn't like losing but had to admit this time he was beat... wait... if it hadn't been for the other classmates's help Ash couldn't have done it!

-Ok Ash... you win this time, but only because they helped you, so it doesn't count as your win! If they hadn't, I'd have won.

Ash couldn't argue with that.

-It was fun, Gary! -Ash smiled- next time I'll win without help.

-Hmpf! You wish! -Gary tried to scoff, but he sounded too happy, and everyone applauded how he tied the thing togheter all by himself.

Ash was jealous because he couldn't do it on his own, and Gary was jealous that nobody had even thought about helping him find an object in a house he didn't know.

-Let's make it a tie today because it's the first time we compete, but next time, I'll totally crush you! -Gary said, sort of looking forward to the challenge; Ash nodded and they shook hands. Gary found Ash good enough to sort of be friends with him, at least for now.

This was back when times were simpler and both boys didn't have a serious competitive objective in their lives other than in a distant vision of the future, but maybe that would change... maybe someday they wouldn't settle for a tie so easily, and they would both think they were too good for the other.

A phone call interrupted the calm, good mood at the Oaks's living room that evening.

-Professor?

-Yes, officer Jenny?

-A Dodrio is stoning all the windows after it was hit by a... flying cactus! There's no other explaination... You're the expert, please come and calm him down!

-A Dodrio? -Gary asked, looking up from TV

-An ostrich Pokémon with 3 heads was hit by your flying cactus and therefore is breaking all the north county windows -he said, putting on his white "professor" robe

-Don't worry - the professor saw the clear dismay on Gary's face- it'll be fine, but make sure you don't let stuff fly so high up you cannot put it back down again next time!

He sat up, grabbed a Pokéball with an Abra in it and left a somewhat guilty but laughing Gary.


	6. Chapter 6

Ash had had so much fun at his birthday party! Maybe that Gary kid wasn't all that bad after all... he just thought he was full of himself.

-Ash! Don't forget to change underpants and set your alarm clock; you've got school again tomorrow!- his mom called from her room while Ash jumped on his bed

That's when Ash noticed the alarm clock had literally flown away earlier. He was in trouble. But he saw where it probably fell: the pond next door. He'd retrieve it next day. In the meantime...

-Mom, eh... my alarm clock...

Next day at school got on as usual; only, people were constantly asking Gary how to do things, and he'd explain, more than out of good will, because he was liking the feeling of being superior, at least in some ways. Like it was all getting better for him.

For Ash, it was a hard time because he'd overslept; his mom's wake-up-call wasn't as loud and annoying as the Voltorb alarm clock's, so he was late for school and forced to wait until period two outside. When the periods shifted, it was preschool's turn to use the sandbox, so Gary passed by Ash and took a moment to remark some facts:

-Hey, Ashy-boy! Are we late today? Partied too hard, huh?

-My alarm clock..! -Ash replied angrily, remembering he didn't have to explain too late-

-Yeah... that's what happens when you don't pick up after yourself! Smell ya later, loser!

-Come back here, Gary! I'll show you..! -he drew two fists, but Gary's class was gone; of course Ash didn't know Gary's flying object had caused a major uproar on the north of Pallet town.

Officer Jenny hadn't had to deal just with an angry Dodrio, but also a series of missing or mangled children in Pallet Town and Viridian City. Two in town; one dissappeared today, and the other had his blood sucked to death by something like giant leeches a few days before; and in Viridian City, only an hour from town by car, seven kids; three killed in gruesome ways and four dissappeared.

The culprit seemed to come from Viridian City, since nobody who knew the children from Pallet remembered where the children were supposed to be when they were last seen alive or had noticed anything suspicious.

Two lost kids during the same month was enough for security to be tightened. Street surveillance would have to increase, unfortunately. At least until there was a clue as to what happened. Although, for one reason or another, it seemed like the police couldn't ever put on a good enough street surveillance; one would think such gruesome acts would be easier to predict and prevent...

Gary had already forgotten the newspaper article he'd seen in the kitchen some days ago, and was feeling a bit better than a few weeks ago. Maybe he did have something good in him after all, even if it had not been enough to keep his family. He sometimes still wondered why he hadn't deserved to have a normal kid's life, according to fate.

He wasn't hungry after school that day, so he decided to roll by the playground for a bit and maybe use the swing; he deserved at least that much for having completed the learning of the alphabet today. Before the other kids even knew half of it, of course.

He'd lost his appetite, partly because he had been wondering... what if of all of the things he'd seen, hadn't all of them been the clown from the other day in a different shape? It felt the same, no matter what form it was... Maybe his parents were trapped by the clown? He was lost in though and didn't notice he took a detour instead of going to the swings like he'd first planned.

He ended up on the way to the pond, perhaps because he had been thinking of how much he wanted to see mom and dad again... he wanted to know if they were really watching over him, or if he could save them if they were trapped.

He was nearing the pond when he thought maybe he could try to see them again and maybe even visit Poliwag... so he paced on.

He smelled that mud and trashcan dark smell again and heard splashing... he remembered not having heard anything last time, but proceeded with caution. A grunt. A step on plastic, which turned out to be a Voltorb alarm clock. He picked it up. The old, now muddy and deflated balloons. Gary pushed a lock of tall grass aside and what he saw when he unveilled the pond gave him a mix of panic, anger and helplessness.

Ash was nearly in the middle of the pond, and didn't seem to know how to swim; he was panicking and water was making him cough, probably making its way into his lungs and stomach. The lillies were approaching him slowly, nearly imperceptibly, but Gary knew those claw-like roots didn't look normal.

-Ash! -he yelled as the younger boy turned his face to see the source of the voice- calm down! Push the water down with your hands in the shape of a paddle, I'm coming to get you!

-Ghhaa-ry..! - Ash said, with one last thread of voice

Gary was death afraid, but still took off his shoes and sweatshirt to swim better. He couldn't live with himself if there was another death related to him. He swam as fast as he could, avoiding the lillies, but getting his legs tied down once or twice by something slimy he was unable to see under the murky water before he reached Ash. This time he'd brought a sharp rock from the start.

-Climb on my back, we'll get out togheter! Just kick the water for me and I'll push it with my arms! -Ash was a little bit less frightened, but couldn't believe Gary would stand swimming with him on his back- I'll kick from below too; I'm taller than you, so I'll be fine sooner!-Gary reassured him

After what appeared to be an eternity, Gary made foot, grabbed a stick and thrusted all water plants aside with it on their way out. Ash wouldn't stop coughing, but still managed to stand. Gary had seen people hit others in the back in movies when this happened, so he proceeded to immitate the actors. Ash got on his knees and spat the remaining water when Gary hit him again. Then Gary sat in front of him and waited until he was breathing as usual.


	7. Chapter 7

Color also started to return to the older boy's face in a few minutes. Was it just him, or even the normal sounds of nature started to return in time?

-Ashy boy... what in the whole crap-covered stupid world were you thinking, swimming here! Do you even know how to swim?

-Gary... you saved me... you knew I was here?

-No, but I found you doing stupid stuff. Were you looking for your alarm clock? Because that's...

-I know where it is... it's just... I don't know if you saw it too but... when I was here, all sounds stopped and I saw my dad in the middle of the pond, and he said it'd be fun if we had a swim togheter... he said he'd teach me how to float...

-FLOAT? -Gary knew at once what had happened

-Did you hear him, too?

-No... it was all quiet here... it smelled like... scary roads, though.

-But then, when I was about to reach him, his hand turned like a root with claws. And his face tore off his head! -Ash was crying and Gary was now as pale as new paper

-A-ash... -he stuttered and scolded himself for it- why would your dad be in a pond unanounced instead of at home?

-My dad... dissappeared when I was 3. I thought he was back.

-What?

-He sometimes left on his Pokémon journeys for some weeks, and one time, he never returned... maybe he is really gone. I feel bad I don't even remember his face well... there are no pictures at home either.

Gary put his hands over the other boy's, trying to comfort him although he was overwhelmed himself and had also felt like crying, as the suddenness of Ash's dad's disappearance reminded him of his own parent's, but tried to fight it back... when do you know someone is vanished, if they can't announce their death? Maybe he'd regret it later, but maybe he couldn't keep it to himself forever... did he want to?

-Ash... tell you something? Both my parents are dead. That's why I moved here and live with gramps.

Ash looked up. Really? Perfect, strong and super-smart Gary Oak was an orphan? Maybe that's why he was so mean. But he'd saved him today.

-Don't tell anyone.

-No.

-Let's not come here alone ever again; I saw my parents too the other day and something horrible tried to drown me. There is something really wrong with this town.

-Why do you say that?

-... Forget it, let's just stay out of this pond.

They got up and left hoping it would be for good.


	8. Chapter 8

A few months passed by considerably better. Gary turned eight and Ash was the only kid he personally invited to his party despite his growing attention-giving "club".

Ash was, even if he prefferred to think of him as a nemesis, a friend and sort of rival he believed was real, even if sometimes they fought a lot; mostly over who'd be the best trainer one day and petty one-on-one competitions Gary won most of the time.

Gary was the top student, especially on Pokémon subjects, and many people and local companies wanted to sponsor him as trainer in hopes he'd become the champion one day. Pallet Town would get retribution thanks to that.

Of course Ash didn't like that, but it was fine for then.

Professor Oak felt bad about how he could still not be a proper parent for Gary... he didn't get as much parental attention as his peers, but as a grandfather who didn't have help raising two minors, he wasn't too bad.

However, he sometimes regretted not spending enough time with Gary, so he sometimes spoiled him too much materially. Sometimes the professor wondered how he could have become such a hard worker and had acquired so much security in himself to the point of arrogance. Then again, his field of expertice was Pokémon, not children.

Only Ash knew Gary wasn't all that fine because he was the one kid who actually knew him. They went to watch movies togheter almost every sunday with Ash's mom and Gary's grandpa, and Gary never laughed at the funny bits. Only smiled, at the most, but he usually had a serious face or a smirk at detective movies. But Ash never brought it up; he just noticed Gary wasn't a child who laughed easily like himself or most kids he knew. It was very rare to see him laughing.

Ash was fine most of the time, and had a fairly bigger friend circle than Gary; he was easy to approach and was nearly every teacher's favorite despite not getting such amazing grades. Gary hated that. But not that much; he liked company, but didn't quite need it, according to himself.

Time passed, and they'd both forgotten about the vicious attacks at the pond for a while. Gary read fluently now, as he was ten, and read about three more kids missing: one kid from Pallet he knew, and two others from Viridian. Their deaths, when they were confirmed, were pretty gruesome and Gary couldn't help but thinking adults were ignoring this case too much; they hadn't even told kids to stay safe. That was suspicious, right? He put the newspaper on his desk with some books he'd read later on.

The only person who would believe him if he said this weren't normal murders was Ash, but would he remember?

Ash was very proud the day he managed to read fluently and got the best grade in reading at preschool. So he wanted to practice just like Gary used to, and he grabbed a newspaper. Headlines about a child-murder case.

Something about the whole thing was familiar although too scary to be real... he had a blurry image in his head about him and Gary at the pond behind his house, Ash nearly drowning because he'd been chasing after his missing father. But was it a dream or not? The newspaper reminded him of the time Gary told him he was an orphan, and it all made sense: it all was real... but he had somehow forgotten; it got lost in his memories of last year... but how could he have forgotten that? How come adults never talked about all the dead kids?

Did Gary remember?

After a few days, he decided he couldn't be silent about this threat on children anymore.

He went to school as usual, and asked the teacher before starting the class what had been done about the case. She stood nervous in front of the class, suddenly out of words when she was one of the teachers that droned on the whole 45 minutes the class lasted.

-What do you mean by that, Ash? -she fiddled with her glasses-

-If they've solved anything about it -Ash replied firmly

-We're not to get our noses into police affairs, Ash Ketchum... I don't know, but I don't think you should play detective with those things. Shall we go on?

-But I just wanna know if...

-Mr. Ketchum, please refrain from bringing up morbid topics like child mutilation to my class, if you please!

The teacher was nervous about the topic, but stern and sure about not wanting to talk about it. That was strange, since she usually talked about topics other than her class's often.

Ash sat still, a bit disappointed when Mrs. Uckerfeldt finally broke eye contact with him,

-All right, open your books on page 29... today we are gonna talk about the cycle of water! Who knows what it's called when it's on ice form? Raise your hand!

Class droned on as usual, and next period was arts and crafts. He'd have it next to Gary's class, which was at sports class. Ash knew most of Gary's schedule without even trying; Gary just seemed to appear everywhere he was. Then again, Pallet Town Public School was pretty small, and they were neighbors.

Ash liked arts and crafts because he could be as dumb and as funny as he wanted and it was fine. His works were not very good, but they were full of color. He also enjoyed the fact you were allowed to talk to people in this class. He used it as another inspiration source.

The other kids talked about their lives and adventures, and sometimes, they had to make drawings of a story made by two people for the subject. Ash usually picked one of the girls as his team because they liked that as much as him. He also liked to share his they had to paint newspaper and wire sculptures they'd spent two classes making, so it wouldn't be a hard day... theoretically.

Ash decided to play tag around the classroom and crashed into the paint closet, made all the paint cans crash onto the floor and since nobody else was running like him, the teacher decided it would be best that he stayed during recess inside cleaning the paint, which had spilled quite far on the gray linoleum floor.

-I trust you, Ash; you wouldn't break anyone else's work, so you can clean during recess instead of after school when I can watch you... besides, it will be easier now the paint is wet. -Ash looked at the floor regretting all his sins as the paint got mixed in a mocking smiling face and spread on. He hated cleaning.

-Ok, I'll be back in a while; hopefully you're done when the bell rings!

That said, Mrs. Tachibana left and Ash grabbed a mop and bucket... and looked out of the window. Gary was making mopping pantomimes at him and made the shape of an L on his forehead while leaving his sports class. He probably had noticed the small disaster Ash had caused.

Ash sometimes thought Gary had a growing fixation with his successes and failures. Ash made a rude sign at him in return and turned his back on the window. He'd started humming a tune and daydreaming of his future Pokémon journey when he heard someone come in. Recess wasn't over yet, so...

-Hey, are you looking for Mrs. Tachibana? -Ash asked the four boys who entered

These people were Matt (Mattie was now Matt) from Gary's class and his friends from two grades above Ash; Tonfers, Peter and Markus. Nobody was really fond of them.


	9. Chapter 9

-What is this piece of crap, Ash? -Matt said, pointing at Ash's work for class, which was still on the table

-It's for school, don't get near it, it's still wet!-he replied anxiously

-Nobody wants to get near anything as childish, girly and ugly as that, it might catch on! -the older boy sneered- I thought it was trash, but maybe since you're here, it's your precious treasure! -the cronnies laughed-

-Yeah, if we confused it with trash we'd throw it into the trashcan, but since it's your stupid art, we're just gonna crush it! -Markus said, inviting the others to come near Ash's piece for class- shall we split it in a half?

Ash suddenly left the mop to fall onto the floor with a wet thud

-Don't even think about it! -he had raised his voice and had made two fists

-Oh, you wanna fight? We're four and you're like, half a boy! -more laughs-

-Yeah... you're always hanging around girls and use so many pretty colors and tell cute pet stories! -Peter said, mock batting his lashes- I mean, why isn't your name Ashley?

-Come here and say that to my face, try and prove it! -the other boy pretended not to hear, but he and the others fake-giggled

-And maybe you like boys, like girls do? You were staring at Gary, and you're like, looking at each other all the time! You're in loooove! Aaaw!

Matt wouldn't mess with Gary since his last episode with him in kindergarden, but he liked to pick on younger people than himself, especially if they were alone. Ash blushed, clenched his teeth and grabbed a can of paint to throw at the bullies, who had surrounded him by now.

-Nope! Another movement and -Matt grabbed Ash's work and snapped it in two-

Now Ash had had it. One thing was saying mean things to him and another was destroying something he'd worked hard on.

He grabbed the paint can, which was open, and hit Matt's face in a way that allowed the blue paint cover all of his face when it poured out; the paint got into his eyes and breathing system, so the boy started coughing and trying in vain to cleanse his eyes with his hands.

Tonfers, who was the "bodyguard" of the group, grabbed him and guided him to a sink while Peter grabbed Ash's fists while he kicked Peter as he tried to get payback about Matt on Ash's stomach. Peter was taller than Ash, as he was two years older, and Markus was too; they began to tie him to a chair after the failed stomach blow when Mrs. Tachibana came in;

-What the fuck... hell! Is going on here!?

-He threw paint on my eyes out of nowhere, Mrs. Tachibana!

-You and I know that's not true. You four, go to the principal's office; you know where it is from the many times you've been there. Let me remind you, you'll be suspended again, and if there IS a next time, you'll be expelled from this school forever! GO, NOW! You can wash yourself later, Matt; that paint gets absorbed into skin anyway; no hurry to get it off, you totally deserve a blue face.

Ash liked the idea of the meanest kid at school having a blue face everyone would make fun of, but now there was a bigger mess to clean up after...

-I'll help you, Ash, don't worry about it. You can fix your project if you want in the meantime. Don't worry about your grade; I won't take points off.

-Thank you. -Ash said, still sad

After fixing his piece, Ash was in a good mood again,

-Mrs Tachibana, I'll clean up the rest, I'm fine now! -he said, smiling

-Are you sure? Thank you! I'll leave you the keys then; look for me next to the principal's when you're done, ok? Don't stay after four, you have to eat!

-Sure thing!

It was nearly 4pm when Ash heard something slither up the sink. He'd never heard of stuff going up the sink, but he didn't think much of if until it talked.

-Hey Ash! How are you?

-Who's there? Heh, I bet it's Mary! Come out there -Ash laughed. There was this kindergarden girl who liked hanging around him. But it was strange, because it was 3.40 and kindergarden closed at 1. Ash neared the sink, which was... talking?

-Am I going nuts? Or is someone down there?

-We're all down here, Ash! We want us to join the fun! -Ash crouched to see if anyone was beneath the sink, and nobody was there. The slithering sound came around again.

-I'm Ellie, from Viridian!

-I'm Rob, from Pallet!

-No, that's impossible! You are dead! Rob's body was found! I read it all! Whoever it is, this is a nasty trick and has to stop!

-But it's not! I'm here too... I'm Sandra from Viridian... it's fun around here! We all float!

Ash saw a pair of yellow eyes gleaming inside the cabinet above the sink, but as scared as he was getting, he tried to dismiss it as material reflecting sunlight. He shook the sink and out of the fawcet came a stream of red liquid... it was thick and smelled like iron... like when Ash had been to a Vulpix twin birth at Professor Oak's Lab and saw the operation... it was blood!

Ash screamed at the top of his lungs, and a janitor came immediately

-Are you all right? What's wrong, kid? -the janitor looked at a pale Ash shaking in front of the bloody sink, with his hands on his head, as if not wanting it to explode.

-But... don't you see?! It's not paint!

-What is not paint? Sink is clean! Are you tired, sonny?

Ash was perplexed. Only he saw the splattered blood? Had he imagined all the dead kids's voices slithering up the sink? Why would he do that? He was positive he hadn't just imagined it... but then he thought of something... There were things kids saw adults couldn't see, right? How come nobody cared about these children's deaths? Only the kids in his class seemed sort of interested in the case when he brought it up... he'd have to ask more adults on the topic.

-No, I thought I saw... a rabid rat come out of the pipes; it startled me but I guess it was dust... I'm just tired, sir, thank you for coming anyway.

-Yeah, don't worry 'bout it.

He left the classroom soon after the janitor was gone, and heard an androginous voice on the schoolyard threshold:

-Don't even try to fight back... there is no way out. You will die trying. Or... "dissappear"!Just like your dad!

-I won't give up, ever! I'll beat you, and I'll beat whatever beat him when I'm at the top, or even before that! Nothing is ever gonna touch my family again, you hear me? I won't just try, I will!

-You die, if you try... you die, if you try... I'm every nightmare you ever had; we're gonna crush you in a half! Just like a fried calf! Look how it all rhymes, Ash!

A sinister laugh filled Ash's head as confetti and balloons bounced across the yard towards the school gate.

The schoolyard was deserted. There was no way (nowayout) this was accidental... he had a vague memory of one other who had encountered this living nightmare too...

 _You die, if you try... you die, if you try..._

Gary Oak was reading a book on water Pokémon when the doorbell to the Lab-house rang. Gramps wasn't home, so he picked up.

-Who's there?

-Gary? It's me, Ash!

-Ashyyyy booooy! -he smiled smugly- Long time no see! Happy mopping today?

-... -Ash thought he'd just leave, but decided against it when the wind made some leaves run across the front yard like the confetti from before.

-Listen, Gary, I need to talk to you about something...

-Why, Ashy? -Gary asked, narrowing his eyes tauntingly. Pressing the doorbell speaker button and playing around with Ash was fun! He had to turn on the front door camera; his expressions when he did that would probably be priceless!

-Gary...-the camera showed the house's inhabitant a serious, concerned and annoyed face at the door- it's important!

-I was just playing, Ash, I'm coming!

They went up to Gary's room.

-Like my Pokémon book collection? Some of them were written by gramps! -he winked at Ash- Sit down, Ashy, don't be shy!

-Gary...-Ash looked down at the floor after sitting on Gary's bed- there's something I wanna ask you... -now he looked sideways and Gary just stared, intrigued- do you remember something that happened at the pond with me? I'm not sure if what I remember is real... I really need to know!

Now he looked at Gary straight in the eye, and Gary widened his own. He hadn't even thought about that incident in a long time, like it hadn't even happened! Yet it was real... and, according to some of his grandfather's books, something that should be hard to forget.

-Yes, I just remembered something... you nearly drowned because you thought you saw your dad at the pond and swam toward him... and it turned out to be a trap to drag you underwater, and maybe... -Gary swallowed, unsure how to say it- maybe beneath the ground.

How do you know it really wasn't my dad? Or about the plants's claws being our imagination?

There's no such thing as a collective hallucination anyone can touch. And about your dad... I'm really sorry, Ash... -it was Gary's turn to avert his eyes- but I was sure he wasn't real at the pond... -he tried to look Ash in the eye again- because I nearly got myself drowned the first time I went alone. -Ash noticed Gary's expression now showed sadness- All because I was given a promise to be with my parents again; but as you know... they're gone, and I saw them lying inside their coffins at their funeral... there's no way he was your dad.

Ash looked sad too, but wondered about something

-But... if the same thing happened to you, why would you go a second time when I was there?

-Same as you! I wanted to see my mom and dad again! But realized this had nothing to do with them; why would they show up at a deserted pond? And the clown...-Gary's eyes seemed to reflect Ash's own horror- it's my turn to ask you something... a clown... have you seen any clowns here in Pallet?

-No... not that I've seen for myself anyway. -he suddenly remembered something- mom had a box with stuff with pictures of clowns in it, but she told me not to look in there for some reason... she said even she shouldn't look "anymore".

Gary got up from his seat on his bed facing Ash.

-We gotta go to your house! Something tells me there's something about the murders related to that box!

-You actually know about the murders? I'm glad you do! Kids in Viridian and Pallet are still being targeted and adults don't really care about it... and something has tried to kill us, too! We could put an end to this!

-Let's go then. Hurry up, Ashy!

They ran straight to Ash's house. Ash's mom was tending to the flowers and vegetables at the garden and just waved and said hello to the boys. It was friday, and Ash and Gary seemed to be so eager to go in and play that Delia Ketchum decided she wouldn't tell Ash to do any house work today.

Ash and Gary tried not to look too eager to avoid raising suspicions. Ash led Gary to Delia's small library.

-It's at the top of the bookshelf... it's locked, but the key's beneath the box. She put it there so I couldn't reach when I was younger, I guess... but I saw the key's definetly there.

Ash climbed onto the top shelf and threw the box to Gary. It looked like an ordinary makeup cabinet; his mom used to have one similar to this. Ash jumped down with the key on one hand as quietly as he could.

-Let's go to my room; we'll open it there! -Gary nodded and they ran up the stairs.

Ash signalled for them to sit down on the floor after locking the door.

-Let's turn on the TV so nobody hears what we're talking about... -Gary tuned it into the Weather Channel- all right, Ash, give me the box...

The keyhole was somewhat rusty, so Gary inferred it was a pretty old box... but would its contents be from the same time?

The cabinet creaked open and revealed some old newspapers, a letter from Cinnabar Island, a marked map of the Kanto region with most marks on Viridian and Pallet and a morgue report that had its edges burned. Some sinister newspapers headlines from more recent times and a circus flyer. Gary and Ash felt chills down their spines and swallowed, but there was no other way to know but to read.

-Gary... you should read the morgue report... it scares me too much to open it -the eight year old boy said

-All right... you check out the newspapers. I'll also check the circus pamphlets. From what I see, it's pretty much the same clown I've seen. -Gary's face was serious but he hid his fear of reading it as well. It would be petty making Ash read something like that when he was the older one of them.

He opened the file folder, passed a few pages and turned green. Then Gary covered his mouth and went to Ash's bathroom.

-Gary, are you all right? -Ash looked up from a newspaper article about a serial child murder case at an orphanage that had happened fourty years ago. There had been one survivor whose name hadn't been disclosed.

Gary had closed the door, but replied feebly behind it

-I'll be fine... don't open that file... there are high definition pictures of a horrid ten child murder case... It's horrible! -he coughed- So gross... I can't believe it!

-Gary, we've got ourselves something! I just read about it on the old newspaper... there have been two cases of child murders in orphanages at Viridian; the kids were all poisoned and the adults that did it went to jail! Why are you so upset?

-They weren't poisoned! There's no reason to poison your business object, and everyone was just okay with those explainations. -Gary washed up his mouth on the sink, more upset on hearing the outcome of the case- the file I just opened is on the case ten years ago... -he looked really sick when he came back slowly to sit before the contents of the box-

-Let me help you! Do you need some water? -Ash looked concerned and confused

-I'll be fine! I want to finish this now... we cannot pause! -Ash seemed startled at Gary's sudden, rare outburst-

-Ash, the report had the real deaths of these kids and some notes about what caused them; this wasn't a human, and a Pokémon or animal so evil... it's impossible! In a city, too! Somebody would have seen something that big come into a building at 9pm. All these kids were found tied to a different piece of furniture inside the orphanage without a different limb or organ each! It looks like some parts of their bodies had been ripped off by a giant claw or set of fangs; there was so much blood... They bled to death! -Gary collapsed on Ash's Snorlax pouf and covered his face so the single tear he shed couldn't be seen. Then it wasn't just one. Ash, as shocked and sad as he was, came close to Gary and held him.

-Gary... I'm scared too... you know this could happen to us and to many other kids if we don't stop this guy! It doesn't look like anybody's doing anything for this to stop... and nobody believes kids when they say they see something scary. -Ash furrowed his brows and remembered something- The clown from the brochures is the one you saw, wasn't it?

Gary nodded. How could something so horrible yet so visible stay hidden for so long?

-This is not a person, Ash... if this is our culprit, it's older than anyone could ever be! I bet it transforms; it's a thing! It should need to kill kids for some purpose. -Gary looked at the ceiling, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully- It transforms into stuff we're afraid of and gets into our feelings to attract us, and then it kills us. -Gary had risen from the Snorlax pouf and out of Ash's embrace by then. He seemed less green now - But other people get scared and won't believe their own eyes if they ever see anything... like we doubted ourselves a first, remember?

-I still find this whole thing hard to believe...-Ash replied slowly- I didn't think of telling adults because they always say you are imagining things, and also, the janitor didn't see the sink full of blood earlier today at school...

Ash told Gary about the incident with Matt and about the sink.

-You see, Ash, the clown thing said it'd crush you in a half, and those idiots had just said something about crushing your work and that you were like, half a boy! It is a mental trick!

-That's right! Like the powers of psychic Pokémon! Only, evil, and dark.

-So... to attack another mind you have to have one... how can you render a mind useless? when do you stop thinking? -Gary thought hard and looked at the broken Voltorb alarm clock, which sat peacefully beside Ash's bed- When you're scared or angry!

-Do you think we can make up something that makes fear be scared? Or angered? Do you think that clown thing has emotions at all? Because... you can't have a heart if you kill kids like that...

-I've read that every multicellular living being, such as humans, animals and Pokémon, no matter how little intelligence it has, can feel fear because it comes from instinct -Gary hesitated for a moment- although we don't know if this thing has a body.

-Do you think it targetted me because I addressed it with adults who could actually fix the problem? Even the newspapers are in denial of this thing... -Ash said, pointing at the old and new papers-

-Yeah, it's all easy for it! Every time you try to talk to someone, they'll say there's nothing there! It happened to me too when I first came to Pallet... it drew my family on my wall, cut our heads off like it was an animation and when gramps came in, it was all made up by grief to him!

-So it makes the kid be alone and then it kills them! -Ash made a fist- Only kids can stop this, then! We can't rely on an adult believing us.

-That's it, Ash! -Gary had a sudden illumination- Adults won't believe in it, but kids alone don't stand a chance... but... how about two kids? Two Pokémon trainer-in-the-making kids? What if we go find it togheter? If we don't let the fear get to us... it'll be afraid because it won't have a way to attack back, and maybe we can beat it!

Ash grabbed the enclosed letter from Cinnabar and started folding and unfolding it.

-We gotta convince ourselves this thing's real, but its images are not, unless they actually threaten our lives! That's what mom used to say when I had nightmares when I was very little... that if you don't believe they can harm you, they won't.

-I know where to find that thing... It's anywhere it smells like scary places. We should go to the pond again. -Gary was feeling much better. Knowing he had a possibility of saving both their lives was a great thrill!- It's probably afraid we're gonna hunt it down, Ash! -he smiled, a little nervous

-Let's eat something, I'm starving... -Gary declared, standing up- how about I stay over and we go tomorrow? I just gotta call gramps and tell him I'm here.

-Sure! It'll be fun; you can sleep on the Snorlax!

-A sleeping me on a sleeping Pokémon! -Gary said merrily- That's so cool! Can you even sleep on your back like them?! I can't stay put like a soldier while trying to sleep...

They talked on about sleeping positions on the way to the kitchen to ask Ash's mom for dinner.

Ash had put away the letter from Cinnabar Island without reading it, along with the other murder case stuff back inside the box and locked it. They would put the box in its place after dinner.


	10. Chapter 10

The Cinnabar Island letter read:

 _Dearest Delia, love of my life:_

 _I'm sorry... if you get this letter, I'm probably lost, perhaps forever. I was followed. Remember what I told you about the orphanage where all the other kids were killed? This thing knows that now I'm old enough to be believed, and that I've got Pokémon to help me defend myself... but I still find myself spiraling to insanity. My mind keeps playing tricks on me and I can no longer distinguish reality from my mind and from its mind... I know you always thought I was joking around about the evil clown because the culprits had been incarcerated. The autopsia revealed poisoning. But I'll tell you a secret I fear is too late to be useful: they were not poisoned. I saw them all get killed. I managed to get a file of it at the Viridian police station and hid it behind locker 16 in case the truth needed to be told. Sneak in and grab it so you're prepared if you ever feel like a target. I saved it from being burnt, and I don't think anything else will happen once it's done with me, but you'll know why I seemed to be such a coward..._

 _I was too cowardly to tell even you, the woman I chose as my wife, about this... but now I realize fear can only beat you if you let it corner you... I can't explain, but now it's too late. Please take care of Ash and make sure to tell him I'll always love him, and I'll always love you._

 _I'll be watching over you from above,_

 _Your husband_

Gary woke up before Ash next morning on the Snorlax pouf's belly. The sun was already white and up, so it must have been about 10am; they'd planned to wake up at the same time they usually woke up for school, but they'd had too much fun the night before to accomplish it.

He'd woken up in a good mood because yesterday night had actually been a lot of fun after he'd recovered from the awful contents of that creepy old box... and his stomach twisted inside him when he remembered why he had stayed over in the first place.

Ash was still lying face up on his bed. His hair was messier than ever, if that was possible, and he was drooling peacefully. Gary would make so much fun of that at breakfast..! But he was feeling uninspired even if Ash looked hilarious; he was too nervous to get in his Ash-Ketchum-Professional-Annoyer mood on. He sat up, took off the blanket and walked up to the still-sleeping Ash.

-Ashy boy... -he shook him lightly- hey, Ash! -Ash turned around and groaned. Gary lifted an eyebrow. He tried shaking him again without results other than a light snore. Time to play rough.

-ASHY! -Gary jumped on the bed and made Ash bounce almost into the ceiling. While in middair, Ash shouted like he'd just seen a ghost, kicked the wall beside the bed and made the Voltorb alarm clock fall on his stomach to bounce onto Gary's head. The awful electric-sounding alarm started sounding and startled Gary, who let out a shout of his own, which made Ash shout again once he'd landed, but then he realized it was just Gary and the Voltorb. He wasn't in a good mood.

-What was that for, Gary?!

-You wouldn't wake up, so I jumped on the bed to shake you more, but you bounced too high and made a terrible mess of things... I didn't know you applied that to every field of your life, Ashy-boy! -Gary laughed- some things are part of the person, huh?

-I'll show you a mess! -Ash threw a pillow at Gary, but he dodged it and grabbed another one

-If you can! -he was about to throw it when they heard footsteps approaching

-Hey kids! Guess what I made for breakfast? -Delia Ketchum stood on the door, cooking apron on. The boys both smiled as the smell of pancakes entered the room.

As breakfast was done, fun had been made of Ash's drooling sleeping face and Gary's bad wakeup call had been recrimminated by Ash and laughed at by Ash's mom, the children set out to the pond. Suddenly, they weren't quite as merry anymore.

They had brought some improvised fighting equipment in their backpacks in case their minds alone wouldn't be able to beat the thing: two silver knives from Delia's tea set, weilded by Gary, who was taller and older. He believed the tale of the werewolf and the vampire who were slain by silver blades he read some time ago might have had some truth in it. He was glad he was the type to read anything that fell on his hands.

Also, a few stones that Ash carried because he was confident about his aim. Maybe he wasn't that strong, but he wouldn't have to use his body's strenght if he knew where to aim with aerial attacks. He was pretty good at sports, so the speed shouldn't be a problem for him.

The grass on the path to the pond was taller than he remembered. It really hadn't been kept at all during the time he hadn't come.

-I bet nobody wants to go there... who knows, maybe one of the missing kids is still alive out there! Come on, Gary, let's hurry up and check it out! -Ash ran ahead of Gary into the grass. Gary followed somewhat reluctantly. He didn't want to find a dead body, himself, but he had no choice but to risk it all and have the possibility of winning this nightmarish game.

Had the path always been this long? It felt like they'd been walking for hours.

-Gary... I don't remember well, but the pond wasn't this far, was it?

-I don't remember the way so well... but maybe the fog is making it seem longer; watch your step!

They could still see the tall grass and the trees ahead of them, and an occasional spider running along the strands of dandelion, fallen leaves, grass and clover. The dried leaves creacked with their every step, and the fog was getting thicker.

-Ash... -he looked around- now I'm sure the path wasn't this long -Gary whispered, worried. He realized the sound of their footsteps was becoming steadily silent, and it was also getting colder -Maybe we took the wrong path.

-No, we didn't... remember this pond is almost next to my house, but I've noticed something: we haven't passed by the things that are past the pond, so we're still here. Let's walk a little bit more.

Gary nodded. This fog didn't feel like the smooth fog he knew; this fog was actually cold and a bit like icy shards on the skin, but the day wasn't cold at all when they'd left the house.

Maybe it was just him, but it looked like the fog was shaped like little tentacles that wrapped around the strands of plants, as if combing them. It was closing in around them, and Gary couldn't hear the birds anymore. That's when he realized he was right about one thing: this fog wasn't normal.

-Ash, I think this fog might be a trap. I know it looks like a weather antic, but something tells me the path got long because the thing is nearby. -Ash stopped walking and looked at Gary, and the later stretched out a hand- hold my hand, remember the clown sepparates kids before he kills them.

Ash took Gary's hand immediately. Gary would hate to admit it, but he felt safer this way, and so did Ash; especially because soon they could not see anything and the ground was getting muddier by the step.

-We're near it! -Gary announced, stopped them both and suddenly he put his free hand's index on his lips to tell Ash to be quiet. He thought he heard something among the unnatural silence.- I think something's behind us -he whispered when he confirmed two sets of footsteps behind them

A shape not much taller than Gary emmerged. Hadn't they heard two people though?

Gary was almost disappointed it wasn't the clown. It was just Matt.

-What, your secret date spot was discovered, Gary? Aww you're sad? Why the long face? We'll make it our secret spot now, so scram.

-Why do you say "we", Matt? Are you going crazy or are you just dumb? -Gary replied smugly- or have you finally reached some kind of dignity and aren't hiding behind Broomstick or whatever his name was?

-Digny-who? -Matt fake laughed- I'm sure you just make up words to pretend to be interesting, but that's just one more reason why you have no friends, Gary Oak... nobody really likes you. -Ash took a step forward defiantly, not letting go of Gary's hand, which made him visible through the fog- Ewww! So you ARE togheter?! You guys are disgusting; did you come here to kiss? -Matt wasn't as confident after he realized Tonfers wasn't there; he was outnumbered. Gary grinned- Oh, you are, Haaa-ha-ha, I'm gonna tell your grandpa now! -Ash made a fist, but Gary stopped him.-

-Matt... say hi to your bodyguard from me. You lost him in the fog, and I bet you won't even be able to get out of here without him, because that's just the kind of loser you are. Bye-bye.

Gary made Ash turn around with him and they both dissappeared into the fog from Matt's sight, and he realized his stooge was indeed more than a few steps gone. He paled as a clown beckonned him from behind a bush. It smelled terrible, but maybe he'd help him find Tonfers...

They stopped under a small tree once they reached the pond, which was not entirely veiled by the fog; it only looked like it went on into the horizon forever. Ash was still embarrassed about what Matt said, but was too scared of letting go of Gary's hand. His own hand was growing sweaty. He wondered what a kiss on the lips was like, though.

-Gary... if today is the last day... can we try...? -he paused and Gary turned his head to look at him inquisitively, but Ash averted his eyes- uh... nevermind. -he hoped Gary didn't notice the small blush that had appeared on his face

But he didn't. Gary couldn't think about anything else than the mission right now; he was no longer scared but he was angry. Where was the thing now? It was just like Matt and the other bullies; it only attacked the weak, the loners, the different and the outcasts!

That meant it was probably just like Matt: helpless in the face of a genuine opponent. Now he really wanted to beat it up to a pulp or whatever the minimal expression of its shape was. He couldn't stand cowardice, and he would go into its lair to get it out to fight if he had to! He'd had enough of this thing invading his dreams and interfering with the places he could trust himself to approach alone in peace. He was tired of being afraid of even opening the fridge alone just because of the putrid smell of fear and despair. And now he knew he could do it... they both could undo it.

-Gary... this thing won't come out; it looks like it's afraid of us.

-This has to be a joke. Don't let go though, Ashy... it's probably just waiting for the minute it's able to isolate us from each other to attack; his presence is here or we'd hear birds and maybe even a Poliwag would come to play.

-You mean you've met a Poliwag here? -Ash's eyes shone- That's awesome! Tell me about it!

-Gary! I've looked for you everywhere! -professor Oak emerged from the tall grass, with a wound on his chest held by a scientist robe dyed red in blood. Gary turned around and stared in horror; had he come all the way here for him with that wound?

-Do you know how much I have to deal with already, and then I hear you're at the pond I told you not to go to since day one you're here? Do you wanna drive me insane?

-It's not like that, gramps; there's something I have to do here, but I'll be back at the Lab in... -Gary gasped. One of his grandfather's eyes had fallen off his sockets and left a black hole on his face. No blood came out of it-

-Look what you made me do, Gary... -he said groggily. Gary almost let go of Ash's hand but Ash stopped him, nearly crushing his hand in his own.

-Gary, no! Don't you see it's it? Professor Oak would never come up here with a wound that big! -Gary's emotions came back to reality; he calmed down a little and the image dissappeared into the fog. Ash got a small jolt of pride. This was new! The scary stuff had actually gone away!

-So it really is here... careful, Gary; seems like it does want to divide us first!

Was it raining? Ash started to feel water drops on his arm, and Gary had apparently gotten a drop inside both his eyes before he looked up and wanted to wipe it off. Gary started wincing and rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

-Ash, something fell into my eyes, I can't see anything! I can't wipe both at once; what's going on?! Please say everything!

-It's... raining? But the pond water is gray and still... Wait, the drops are actually red?! I don't wanna look up, Gary... it smells horrible! Like mud with maggots... something worse and blood!

-It smells rotten; it's the smell of It! Whatever you see, Ash, don't believe it! I'm scared I might go blind... I can't wipe this off! -Gary barely contained the hysteria welling up inside him. Something ugly fell off the treetop with a wet thud.

Ash had his gaze set in that direction and had no choice but to realize it was a human arm. A kid's limb ripped at both ends. He froze and looked up to find a severed head with no face, only a mouth that had been cut into it. It said "come and play!"

Ash shouted as he realized the other limbs dripped on them

-Gary help me! There is a severed... child up there, and it talks! I swear it's real! It mangles kids up, doesn't it? And it eats them! Please, Gary let's go!

-Throw a stone! -Gary was on the verge of tears due to his seemingly imminent blindness- Describe them to me, are the bodyparts fresh?! Like it's not really dead, do they move?

-Yes, Gary, it's horrible! -Ash was fighting panic as well- We could have saved this kid..!

-The last attack was about two weeks ago; it couldn't be fresh! It's IT again! It's not real! It just knows your worst fear is ending up like that if you lose to it! He knows I can talk now but can't see so he's trying to get you instead!

-You're right! -Ash threw a stone and the whole image disappeared to reveal a normal tree with nothing besides leaves and branches- it's gone now.

Gary felt like he was made of lead. He couldn't believe the thing wouldn't get out of his eyes no matter how hard he rubbed.

-Ash, I'm gonna be blind! I won't be able to do anything like this! How can I become a Pokémon trainer this way?! How could I be so stupid? In an instant everything is gone! How can I repay my parents this way?! -he crouched and clutched his eyes.

He let go of Ash then, and the clown appeared briefly before him, but only Ash could see him. He lunged into the floor to wrestle Gary from the back.

-You can't give up like this! Are you the Gary I know? The Gary who always wins against me? Hear me out; this substance came from that tree, and it was all a picture to scare me so he could grab you first! And probably me after that... Gary, I'm still here, like it or not! And unlike what Matt said, you do have at least one friend, and that's me!

Gary couldn't hold the tears of desperation, fear and sadness in anymore. Ash got off his back and held both his hands as his eyes leaked a red substance that gradually became transparent. Gary could see again. Blurry at first, then clear. -I... can see! -Gary said and cried some more. Ash was scared he'd lose control of this situation, and that he might end up blind any second now as well... and then the red haired clown grabbed him, despite having his hands in Gary's. He didn't have time to shout, because the clown dived him straight into the pond, and made sure his mouth and nose were covered in water before the scream was let out.

Gary got up, horrified at the realization Ash had been ripped out of his reach. That was not even expected! When had Ash given in?! The clown laughed maliciously, pointing at the older boy with its free hand as he held Ash by the throat with the other. Time to grab the silver knife.

-Ash! I'm coming! - He knew he couldn't reach the laughing clown before he drowned Ash on time, and it had his claw-like teeth out already almost on Ash's head, which was half underwater, struggling to go up; the white water lillies were almost at Gary's feet. No time to get there for him!

He threw the silver knife with all his might and hit the clown's head. Its eyes went black as coal and so did its mouth. The body seemed to be turning inside out, but all there was inside appeared to be just a black nothing. Then it dived into the pond and vanished with no trace of having ever existed. Not even ripples on the water next to Ash's.

Gary then pulled Ash into the surface with a long, heavy stick. Once again, he'd saved his friend from drowning, and possibly, being beheaded. Ash came out of the water, panted, tried to stand up, but fainted. Gary caught him just before he hit the ground.

-Ash! -he panicked and didn't bother to check his heartbeat as he had never seen someone faint; Gary just buried his face in the younger boy's chest to sob uncontrollably and mutter apologies he thought Ash wouldn't be able to get. Just like his parents. Maybe he should have come alone! That way, only he would have had his life in peril, and nobody who would be missed would have left this world! There were far too many people in the next world now... why hadn't fate chosen him? Did he really have to remain?

He kept holding Ash, who was freezing and pale. He grabbed his hand once again and looked at his closed eyes. He couldn't believe it; he'd trade places with him if he could. The fog was clearing, the birds chirped again in the sunset and the white lillies receded in number. But Gary, instead of contemplating it all, plucked a few water lillies to put them around his friend after he'd lain him down on the ground.

He kissed his forehead after saying something like what he'd heard the priest say at his parents's funeral. He knelt still, holding his hand. He didn't know how much time he'd been like that, until something rustled the strands of grass in front of him. It was Poliwag.

-Hey... -Gary said quietly- I can't play right now... look what I did..! -he sobbed-

Poliwag wagged his tail and jumped into Gary's lap, but seemed to be smiling. Was the tadpole insane? He looked at the Poliwag, puzzled.

-You don't know what death means, right? -but Poliwag was still calm and playful. Gary tried to fight the idea that this was just the clown. But then, as rage started to flood his system, Poliwag got itself upside-down and did something with a beam that came out of its belly spiral to Ash's head. Ash's hand tightened around Gary's. What?

Ash groaned and opened his eyes slowly. He saw Gary's wet, red, swollen and beaming face and a Poliwag jumping happily next to him. He was surrounded by white lillies. Had Gary thought he was dead? He didn't feel so good, but smiled weakly at them.

-Gary... thank you, guys! Ugh... -Ash had an excruciating headache. His vision began to blur again and he lay down again- I'm still feeling bad.

Ash fell into deep sleep, but color had returned to his face at least. He seemed to be almost ok now if it wasn't for the uncontrollable need to sleep he'd suddenly had. How was he supposed to go to a doctor to get checked? Gary had an idea.

-Poliwag, do you think you and your friends could help me carry Ash to the playground? There's a phone where I can call gramps to get help for him!

Poliwag nodded and went into the bushes, and returned with three other Poliwags and a Poliwhirl. That helped a lot!

-Ok, guys! I'll carry the feet which is the hardest part; Poliwhirl will hold the head and the others will help us carrying the weight of the rest of the body; ready? -he grabbed the feet- Let's go! -he said, looking up at now clear, blue sky. He could live on to be a Pokémon trainer after all!

Ash would be in observation at the small hospital in Pallet Town for the rest of the weekend; he'd had a pretty bad case of energy loss and seemed a bit unstable emotionally, but he should be fine in a few days.

Gary snuck into his hospital room, as people younger than sixteen were not allowed to visit other patients. He was there both to see how Ash was, and, now he had recovered from the fright, to tell him it really was gone.

Ash didn't really want visitors, but didn't have the energy to tell Gary to go away. After the initial relief to hear the thing at the pond wouldn't attack again in a while, he grew stern.

-Gary... what if it returns?

-We'll be able to get it again. We know how to do it and what it is now.

-Promise me that if it appears again, you'll help me end it.

-I don't even have to promise that. As long as I'm alive, I'll make sure it doesn't stand a chance at killing kids again.

Ash was satisfied with that answer.

-About the Poliwag... is he your Pokémon?

-No, Ashy, I don't have my licence yet, I can't own Pokémon! But imagine; if I could already give orders to a wild Pokémon, how much faster will I become a Pokémon master than you?

-You..! -Ash's vitality came into his body again, as they started discussing who would be the next champion of Kanto and the possibilities of catching more Pokémon. But the nurse came to expell Gary out of the hospital, and it was Ash's turn to make a face at him.

(End of childhood part of story)

(A/N): Yeaaaaah bad me! I hadn't posted for so long, what with getting used to live in a new continent and all, but I hope I can do it more from now on ^^')


	11. Chapter 11

Six years passed since Gary and Ash had beaten up the monster to an equivalent of a pulp, and Delia still couldn't imagine where her silver knife was, but didn't seem too worried about it. Her mind was occupied by the fact Ash would set out on his first Pokémon journey next day. Her only son was so brave! He was only fourteen, but he was finally able to start making his dream come true!

Professor Oak was very proud of how smart and independent his grandson had become at age sixteen. Although he could tell his "fanclub" didn't like him for him as a person, and very few people could stand his still-growing arrogance these days, he'd do well on his Pokémon journey. Maybe it could teach him a thing or two, not about Pokémon and training, or even hard work, because he was already a hard worker; but he had to learn the world didn't owe him on his own, and about humility. He'd be here if he needed support, but young people have to live their mistakes, too.

Ash was overwhelmed he'd finally go on his journey! He set the infamous Voltorb alarm clock while he thought what starter Pokémon he'd pick...

Gary couldn't sleep, so he stopped trying and went up into the Lab roof to watch the moon. He liked doing that whenever he was stressed or excited these days.

All of Pallet Town would be there to see him depart! His grandpa had even allowed him to borrow the car so he'd reach the cities easier. That wouldn't stop him from catching Pokémon on the way; this was not a way to slack off but to make things more efficient!

He had so many sponsors he could even sneak a luxury trip or two along the way... sometimes he thought he'd grown to like showing off too much, but he'd gotten all of those sponsors and admirers that way, so he saw no problem.

Only his sister, his grandfather and Ashy-boy made remarks about it, but girls thought it was cool. Not like he was interested in any of them; they were just people he sometimes got along with. He'd made a lot of acquaintances, but he'd only miss the professor, maybe his sister, and he'd hate to admit it, but something on the back of his head was arguing about Ash. As usual. He thought a lot about him. What if he hadn't decided to pay a visit to the pond the day he first met that horrible thing? What if he hadn't learned to swim before he even came to Pallet?

If he brought the issue to the front of the mind, didn't Ashy-boy start his journey next day, too? He didn't have any sponsors but his mom, and only his friends would be attending his departure. He smiled smugly at himself. And then all trace of humor was gone. He didn't want to admit it, but he could tell Ash's friends were mostly real... and he couldn't stand that.

He'd try to discourage him from even thinking he could beat him at Pokémon too; he couldn't allow him to be better than him in every field of life that mattered to him.

With hopes and dreams, both light and dark in both teenagers, they departed Pallet Town and occassionaly met up during the journey. Like during their childhood, at first they competed for everything, and Gary usually won; he'd make fun of Ash every chance he had! He even made fun of him, discreetly, on TV when he was interviewed. Ash was enraged, and his friends, Misty and Brock, often wondered why they had such an intense rivalry and fixation with each other. However, when it really mattered, they had each other's back.

Gary was mean only to Ash, but didn't like it when others were unfair or threatened him either. And so was Ash. Gary might have some personality issues and was a real prick when he put his mind to it, but he was not a bad person, and cared about Pokémon as much as he did; he had to give him at least that form of respect, and they both couldn't deny to themselves they actually cared how the other did.

Ash rarely ever spoke of him to his friends, and Gary didn't feel like talking about him to people who admired him. He'd rather talk to his family about those things, but it wasn't often either. They both thought of each other very often; they didn't know the other did as well, but they both had a Pokéball half from the same Pokéball: the one they both fished in the small river that flowed from the Pallet Town pond; they'd broken in as they fought to keep it. That was their good luck charm, but neither knew both had thought of that.

That time, they were competing about fishing and Pokémon knowledge and the usual bicker. Ash wanted to call it a tie, but Gary was very angry and said tying with Ash was as bad as losing, which enraged (and hurt) Ash as well. Gary later admitted to him he said that because he felt like a failure after he lost something so simple. Over time, they became very good friends again without dissing each other.

Mostly after Gary had gotten beaten by Mewtwo at Viridian gym after a year of travelling. He was slowly becoming more like a less arrogant version of himself, and Ash began to genuinely like him again. Even Misty and Brock took a liking to him after a few times they'd met up with him. All of the journey had to end some day, and Gary chose being a Pokémon researcher instead of a Pokémon master, because he discovered he had more passion about that than toward training, as he told Ash on the last day of the Silver Conference they'd competed in; Ash won against Gary, but he wasn't upset about it; he was rather proud of his friend, but Ash was shocked and sad he wouldn't get to compete with him on official matches anymore.

-Here you go Ash; have this Pokéball half... you've earned it! I mean it! When I lost against you back then, I felt like a failure... but this time you finally beat me fair and square; I'm not even mad I lost!

Gary held Ash's hands briefly in his and gave him the Pokéball half he owned. For the first time in their journey, they both knew they were in each other's minds. They certainly wouldn't have accomplished anything without the other. Eventually, both Gary and Ash would have the other's Pokéball half as good luck charm again, like the vibes travelled from one to the other.

Ash's Pokémon journey had come to an end nine years later from its start. Gary was living in Sinnoh, and no longer had a fanclub of any kind; just his friends and his Pokémon, especially an Umbreon that he'd raised since it was a baby Eevee.

Ash ended up having sort of a fanclub: people looked up to him because he'd won several important Pokémon tournaments. When he came home, he had to acknowledge that his mom's relationship with professor Oak was real and romantic.

He'd suspected something was going on since his journey started, but... Of course he knew this would eventually happen, but thought it was crazy until he actually saw them going out on a real date with flowers and everything togheter. He was quite surprised Gary's grandpa wasn't as old as he thought he was. What did Gary Oak think about this?

As soon as Ash's welcome parties at Pallet Town ceased and his Pikachu was in a good mood again after so many people had grabbed its electric cheeks (ooh so cute!), Ash called Gary's number in Sinnoh to announce his return.

Gary's voice, a little deeper than he remembered, answered the phone

-Hello?

-Guess who? -Gary could have sworn that voice belonged to someone he knew. He looked at his Umbreon inquisitvely, but Umbreon nodded as in "go on", and he turned on the videophone camera.

He had a skeptical look as he looked at the keyboard to press the right buttons. Ash hadn't seen him in about two years, but he was happy to see he still had that messy, brown spiky hair. Also, his style in clothing remained the same as in their teenage years save for the professor-white-robe he'd started wearing when he became an assistant at a Sinnoh lab, but this robe seemed to be a higher rank's property. Gary looked up at the screen and couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a black haired, taller guy with a cap.

-Ash! -he smiled and Umbreon jumped at the screen to greet as well, and Ash and Pikachu waved at Umbreon in return- How are you?! Long time no see!

-Everything's great! I'm in Pallet, and I plan on staying here for a while... I'm helping trainers bond with their Pokémon here for a while, and then, I'm going touring to Viridian to do the same... you could say I'm a professional at helping people get along better with their Pokémon these days! I'm full of work!

-That definetly suits you! I bet it's hard to charge money for this when that's pretty much all you've done in the past ten years, huh? -Gary laughed. Ash blushed, flattered

-Yeah... I've had trouble with that, but I'm getting used to it. What about you? Professor Oak has told me a lot about your scientist life in Sinnoh, but are you ever coming back to catch up properly?

-Actually, I have some weeks off in a few days... what do you say we have a Pokémon battle like old times? -Ash's expression revealed he had been craving just that- I planned on visiting gramps, but now I also plan on beating you! I arrive in two days. Prepare to lose again!

Gary stuck out his 25-year-old tongue at Ash as if Ash needed more motivation to want to beat his lifelong rival and friend.

Just before Gary hung up and the image faded into black, Ash got bumped by his mom's Mr. Mime with a broom, and the last image that appeared on Gary's screen was of Ash nearly falling onto the floor because of a seemingly walking broom, and Pikachu electrifying itself in scare.

-MIMEEE! -Mr. Mime shouted while pushing Ash out of his way to sweep the floor.

-Mr Mime, what the flipping hell? I was on the phone, and he saw me being thrown into the floor by you! He's so gonna make fun of me again...

-Mr. MIIIIIME! -the Pokémon kept singing to itself in joy as he swept Ash out of the surface he had been standing on like he was dust. After cleaaning the aforementioned surface, Mr. Mime was about to sweep Ash's head when Delia Ketchum came into the room

-Pikaaaa -Pikachu greeted and ran into her arms, ignoring the trampled Ash on the floor

-Aww Mr. Mime seems to be telling you you forgot to bathe yesterday and today, just as I suspected -she giggled and Ash shot a glare at broom-weilder- you haven't changed your underpants either, have you, honey?

-Mom! I'm 23! -Ash said, exasperated as he stood up- Don't tell me to change my underpants!

-Now, honey! You can be 99 if you want, but I'm still your mom! -she smiled- but since you're already dirty, how about plucking out some vegetables in the garden?

-Mimemimemimeee! -Mr Mime protested, tugging at Delia's sleeve-

-Don't worry, Mimey, you get to wash whatever Ash plucks out -more giggles and a satisfied Mr. Mime left the room as Ash tried to remember where the garden shovels were...

Ash hadn't had a good look at the garden since the last trip he'd made to Pallet two years ago. His mom kept it so well ever since he was little. Plucking out food reminded him both of his journey and his childhood.

-Look at the carrots Pikachu! It's pretty cool how they pop out of the ground, huh? -Ash knelt down to pluck one

-Pikaaa -Pikachu pulled one about as tall as himself and made Ash laugh as he tumbled around with the edible root in his tiny paws- Chu?

-I don't know what mom does to her vegetables, but they always grow super-big... She's planted stuff even since I was about three years old. Come to think of it, I've never really showed you the town I lived my childhood in, have I, Pikachu?

Ash gave his Pikachu the whole tour but felt like he had forgotten something for some reason. Something he really hadn't seen much of, but was one of the things that drove him to always want to stand out among trainers and practically be invincible. He should think harder...


	12. Chapter 12

Gary had to pack a pretty large trunk if he wanted to have a proper vacation with all of his comodities in his hometown, so he practically had to move out of the Sinnoh lab headquarters, but chose to leave some stuff behind so nobody thought his room was abandonned. Umbreon was being curious about the box he always put his necklaces in. G ever since he could remember, but couldn't place the moment they began to be an important part of his appearance for him.

Umbreon started sniffing the box and pulled out a Ying-Yang pendant Gary hadn't used in a while and brought it to its trainer. Umbreon poked Gary behind the knee like the dark-type Pokémon often did when seeking attention. He had the necklace hanging from his snout.

-Uuumb! -she poked his trainer again-

-What is it, Umbreon?

-Umbreon, Umbreooooo! -she wagged her tail, amused-

Gary eyed the ying yang symbol in his Pokémon's mouth. That Umbreon sure had an intuition; she often guessed what he was thinking about. That was his first necklace! His grandfather had given it to him when he was about seven years old, but he had to think pretty hard to remember the context. He grabbed the Ying Yang symbol and tried to remember how he got it, but a scary sensation got into him every time he tried to remember it...

-Umbre? -Umbreon sat down in front of Gary and decided she'd help her trainer; he seemed very deep in thought and couldn't seem to fully concentrate, because what he tried to think about seemed to be... dark.

So, time to use her abilities! She'd have to get the dark to be big enough to be noticed...

Umbreon used Heal Bell!

Trainer Gary is no longer confused! Blocking thoughts were cleared!

Trainer Gary used "What are you doing?"

It doesn't affect Umbreon...

Umbreon used Dark Pulse!

Trainer Gary is looking at the ceiling!

Umbreon used Dark Pulse!

Trainer Gary's eyes shine in recognition!

Trainer Gary's eyes widen!

Trainer Gary used Grab my Own Head and Clench my Teeth!

But it failed!

Umbreon used Moonlight!

Trainer Gary remembered something!

Trainer Gary is frozen solid!

Trainer Gary fainted!

Umbreon gained ... no, you don't gain exp. points for making trainers faint, that's cheating.

Umbreon made sure Gary didn't hit his head when he finally colapsed on the floor by substituting a cushion as he fell, but it hurt her backbone, since his head was pretty heavy to begin with, and Gary had fallen from about 1.70 m onto her back. She started howling to attract the other Lab residents to the scene; she couldn't move right now!

Gary woke up at the infirmary. At first it was hard to remember how this had happened or why he was here, but he had a slight headache and felt drowsy. Out of the window he saw it was already dark. The nurse would probably be at dinner with the other scientists. He sat up on the infirmary bed and saw the stars, trying to ignore the dizziness the whole movement caused him. Apparently, he hadn't gotten any serious injury; all he saw was a bag of ice in the sink, so he assumed he hadn't got hit on the head but somewhere less dangerous. How?

All he remembered was Umbreon decided it would be cool to use her dark powers on him... but why? He was looking at a necklace gramps had given him and trying to remember what had caused that event... and given Umbreon's intuition, she probably knew it was something dark before he did and tried to remind him.

A rough move, for sure; he remembered everything at once... it was impressive, how he had completely forgotten about the crazy-evil clown monster that nearly got him and Ash killed more than ten years ago in Pallet Town. Did Ash remember? How could he have forgotten? Oh... that's right! The thing made you forget, especially once you grew up.

The nurse came in after a while.

-Professor Gary! How are you feeling? You're pale...

-I'm ok, but I just remembered something... I need to phone a friend -Gary got off the bed but lost his balance and the nurse grabbed him by the shoulders so he wouldn't fall again-

-Professor, you must rest; you can't jump out of bed like that after fainting! Besides, it's 11pm... I'm sure your friend is asleep by now. You need to eat and drink something; I brought orange juice... do you like it?

Gary usually shared the bed with his favorite Pokémon, Umbreon, like Ash shared his sleeping spot with Pikachu, but tonight it wasn't an average night. Gary felt the need to cling onto his four-legged friend and make sure Umbreon didn't leave the bed without him.

It had been a long time since he was last scared at night; actually, it hadn't happened since he was a child! It's a good thing Umbreon wouldn't be able to tell anyone about his current state of mind. It was like the thought of Pallet Pond and the park trashcan wouldn't get out of his head. Even if he, to this day, still avoided any place that smelled like trash with a passion, he couldn't understand what had really happened there.

He tried to convince himself that he and Ash had really beaten the evil thing all those years ago, and that they both really saw it sink into the depths it couldn't come back from... but hadn't something similar happened to his memory right now? There wasn't any guarantee the clown-thing wouldn't be back after new children's flesh and souls to eat. He hugged Umbreon tighter unconciously, and she protested,

-Breoooon! -she bit his forearm lightly as a warning and nuzzled it off

-Sorry Umbreon... I guess I'm just a bit uneasy about something, but it'll pass; it's not like I can be awake all night -he forced a chuckle. He didn't want to worry the Pokémon too; he saw no need to- I'll try not to squeeze you again, stay here, ok?

Umbreon shot him a skeptical look that looked a lot like his trainer's own eyebrow-rising gesture. Gary smiled a little and stroked Umbreon's long ears. He was right about his theory about how Pokémon took in traits and gestures of their trainers.

But he wasn't right about not being able to be awake all night.

The sun came up slowly as he stared at the gap between his lab bedroom curtains and he felt like not doing anything. He grunted at the orange sun beams that hit his eyes after a while and sat up on the bed. After a few minutes of rubbing his seemingly swollen eyes, he stood up, took off his pajamas, which he kicked into the trunk and put on his travelling clothes and the Ying Yang pendant. He didn't bother washing his face or teeth; instead, he headed straight to the dining room to get breakfast, thinking maybe dying could be an option for today's activities. He felt awful. Umbreon was still curled up and asleep at her usual spot near Gary's stomach on the bed. He was so jealous the Pokémon didn't have to report for anything that morning like he did.

First he had to go explain the other Sinnoh Lab resident scientists about not having finished his part of the Lab protocol last night because of his sudden fainting. Not like they didn't know, but he'd better say it himself.

After that, he'd make the last preparations to go to Pallet town. His balance and sight were so bad today he'd rather call a taxi instead of driving himself to the airport. He'd try sleeping during the flight...


	13. Chapter 13

p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Pikachu and Ash were on the roof of the Ketchum house, staring at the Poké-corral behind professor Oak's Lab in the distance. He knew Gary would arrive soon, and although his old friend had given up training long ago as an occupation, he still practiced it as a hobby, so his Pokémon were probably still skilled in battle. He was getting pumped for this round; what Pokémon would he use..?/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Apparently, once the flight was over, stewardesses didn't have the obligation to stay polite to costumers; maybe they weren't paid extra minutes. Gary made the former deduction after a stewardess had put an ice on his forehead to wake him up and made an angry face when he grabbed her wrist as a defense reflex when he woke up all startled./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Finally! I thought you were dead. -the lady with the tight bun didn't seem concerned at all about a possible dead person on the plane- Listen, sir, I can't go call my boyfriend unless ALL passengers leave this plane, and you, sir, pretend to be asleep just to make the line at baggage claim grow shorter while seated; like I haven't seen that trick before!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-My god! That boyfriend must be deaf to be able to stand all this kind of nonsense every day... -Gary stood up, facing the exit- or maybe he just puts his Snorlax on the phone and you can't tell them apart. -he was still half asleep and couldn't come up with a less childish answer; this sounded genius to him at the time and had trouble containing a laugh/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-I'm gonna get the cops on your ass for saying that! -the woman said, turning red-/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Whatever, I'd love to hear how you report me, but I don't like to waste my time over petty drama. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"He made the peace sign at the cranky stewardess, exiting the plane without looking back, and unplugging the phone signal cable when she wasn't looking. He couldn't resist. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"What had just happened, though? It wasn't usual for anyone to hate him, but he used to be pretty popular with women when he'd just started training Pokémon. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"He laughed at himself. He knew it had all been because of his many sponsors and because he liked to spend on them to show them how awesome he was back then. Embarrassing, but at least he hadn't dated them or anything; he called them "my fan club" and "friends of mine" for a reason. He found that hilarious nowadays; funny how memories could change in meaning depending on how you keep on living and making new ones. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Ash's face came to his mind and their bickering came next while he waited for his baggage. The image made him smile for the first time in the otherwise hellish day. He wondered how he would see his time at the Sinnoh Lab in a few years? At least he wanted to be proud of who he had become and how he'd found what he really wanted to do with his time on Earth. Had Ashy changed a lot during these two years? He'd know soon.../span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Gary Oak was about to ring the bell to his grandfather's Lab-house and former residence when suddenly, an enthusiastic and unmistakeably male squeal was heard not too far from the spot./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-GAAAAAAARYYYYYYYYYY! /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Who..? -a sprinting Ash with open arms was coming up the street- ASHY! How have you b...? -before Gary could finish the sentence, Ash sprang up and hugged him tight, almost knocking him to the floor. He was surprised but so happy to see him he played along; he hugged back and laughed at the scene despite himself./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Soon, professor Oak opened the door and invited them both a cup of tea to catch up. It felt like it hadn't been two years but ten that they all hadn't seen each other face-to-face. Pikachu and Umbreon hadn't seen each other in a while and kept playing tag around the table. Ash noticed after some hours of talking to the Oaks and got an idea./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Gary, have you ever shown Umbreon around Pallet Town? Pikachu and I had a lot of fun touring around here./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-It hadn't really occurred to me... what do you think, Umbreon, should I give you the tour?/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Umum!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Pika Pika! -Umbreon and Pikachu smiled their Poké-smile and nodded in enthusiasm/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-They seem to like the idea, Gary! The more your Pokémon knows you, the better they'll respond to you in a situation -professor Oak interjected- although I'd say you should do it just for fun. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"The professor sipped on his green tea and Gary smiled sideways,/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Sounds good, then! Be prepared, Umbreon; tomorrow is excursion day like old times! -Umbreon approved and head-butted his trainer's leg gently/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-I'll go with you! Pikachu loved it so much, though I probably skipped some areas... besides, it will be fun remembering old times!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Gary got a small chill on the pit of his stomach when Ash said that for a reason he couldn't put his finger on, but although he'd planned to go with Umbreon alone, he thought it was a good idea that his human best friend came, too./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-All right, Ashy, but don't oversleep or I'll make my Blastoise hydro pump you like a fountain ball all around town!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"The usual bickering started and pofessor Oak proceeded to prepare more tea and mentally meditate./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Ash and Pikachu left soon after dusk. The trainer was in a very good mood; maybe he would cook his mom dinner, unless she'd already made it, of course./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-It was fun, right, Pikachu?/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Pikaaaa -Pikachu smiled up at his trainer, but as they reached the crossroad to the row of blocks to Ash's house, he stopped and froze on the spot, suddenly serious./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-What's the matter, Pikachu? Are we being followed?/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Pikachu's hair stood up and his ears bent down onto his head. Since Pikachu is an electric (huge) mouse, static couldn't be the reason for his hair suddenly standing, and it was summer, so it wasn't cold either. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Ash didn't see anything that could have frightened the Pokémon either; however, he knew his yellow fluffy pal had a better intuition than he did./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Is a natural disaster approaching us, Pikachu? -Ash couldn't see any other Pokémon going beserk like the time some weird collector had captured the legendary weather birds, but he thought he'd ask just to be sure/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Pi...-the Pokémon shook his head and frowned sadly/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Come on, then... we gotta go home! It's pretty near by! -Pikachu pulled Ash's leg toward Gary's house/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Are you saying we shouldn't go this way? But it's all right! If you don't wanna walk through it, just get inside my vest and I'll pretend I'm a fat guy, what do you say? -Ash joked but opened his vest for his friend/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Kaaaa...-Pikachu hesitated, but then climbed into Ash's vest and his trainer covered him up. Pikachu wasn't acting normal, but maybe the street had looked scary to him; some individuals didn't like small towns because they seem creepy to them at night, and legend says the hold secrets more poisonous than those of cities./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Ash was walking past the last block of houses before his own when he saw a police line and town police motorcycles surrounding the first house on the block before his isolated house's. Officer Jenny was interviewing a crying woman in her forties and another woman who looked like she was her sister was telling onlookers to leave. As usual, the Pokémon trainer and champion of several battle tournaments wanted to help./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-What happened here, officer? -Pikachu rolled around inside his vest, scratching Ash and making him look suspicious. Hopefully the officer hadn't noticed./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Mrs. Kendall's daughter was found dead under the backyard bush just ten minutes ago... that makes three murdered kids between Pallet and Viridian this month... wait, what? Ash, get out of here, this could be dangerous./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-But I wanna help!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-I must insist, get out of here and don't go out at night alone; there's some serial psycho killer loose, and although you don't fit within its apparent targets, you shouldn't take your chances, young man!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-A killer?! Why would anyone kill children but not rob the place and kill the parents? Are you sure she was murdered? -Pikachu sent a warning jolt to his trainer- AAAUGH... Ok, I'll go... if you need a Pokémon trainer's help, I live on the only house next block- another, stronger jolt- AAAAAAH... uh... I better go!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"This time he really ran for it. He hoped the policewoman didn't suspect him for acting so weird; then again, he was probably famous with the police; why hadn't they let him intervene as usual? Oh well./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Pikachu finally decided to leave Ash's vest when he was already inside the house; he ran to greet Delia Ketchum and spend some quality time letting her pet him./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Mom, I'm here! -Ash hung the vest- Hey, I wanted to show you a very practical dish Brock invented when we were travelling...-he stopped on his tracks when he realized he had lost his appetite, but he really wanted to cook for his mom after so long. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Ash, this is delicious! You surely inherited my seasoning abilities! - she giggled- Even Mimey loved it, and you know how strict he's strict with you./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Ash smiled, flattered by the nod of approval by Mr. Mime and Pikachu./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"He didn't want to ruin the moment by talking about some apparently gruesome kid murders, so he continued talking about his day at the Oaks's and listening to his mom's new projects, but deep down, he kept thinking about the murder. It was downright creepy, but it was probably gonna get solved soon, so it shouldn't take a big place in the back of his mind, right?/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Although he'd slept some time on the plane, Gary wanted to go to sleep somewhat early to be fully energized for next day. Much like Pikachu slept on Delia Ketchum's bed rather than on Ash's, Umbreon seemed to favor professor Oak's bed. What's with Pokémon and their trainer's "trainers" anyway? Oh well./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Nothing was more comforting than one's own bed and bedspread! Gary sank into the mattress, huddled into the covers and closed his eyes in bliss. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Until some foul smell started coming from beneath the bed. This had to be a joke. He opened one eye with a scowl and checked. The underside of the bed was perfectly normal, except for what looked like a skull. Gary opened the other eye and turned on the light, but it was nothing but some old notebooks from primary school and crayons. He rolled his eyes and was about to turn off the light again when someone knocked on the window./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"It wasn't that late for visits, but who could it be? Maybe Ash had some secret plan? He went up to the window and opened the curtains to look down at the garden below, but it was empty. As he was about to shut them again, he was interrupted by someone knocking on the door./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Yeah? -Gary was getting irritated./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Then, another knock on the window while Gary was facing the door. It sounded more like twigs slapping the glass than a normal pole or even gravel being thrown at a window. But it wasn't. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"What Gary saw when he turned around was a pair of human skeleton hands trying to break into the house. He gasped and froze on the spot, and they disappeared as fast as they had shown themselves. Had he imagined them? The glass didn't look scratched, and since his room was on a second floor, it was impossible that anyone without a ladder climbed all the way up there, and the roof was also a few meters too high for anyone to hang so low... maybe he was just tired. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"But as he turned to the bedroom again, a black balloon was hovering right above his pillow. Before he could muster any kind of action, the balloon exploded and left the pillow covered in blood while a child's cry was heard. Gary felt his own blood drain away from his face and the nausea of panic kicking in, and he grabbed a small chair from his old desk to defend himself,/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-I know you're here, but you're not real! You can't do anything to me!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;" A single knock from behind. The bone hands weren't there anymore, but a message was written in glow-in-the-dark crayon on the window:/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"GET OUT OF TOWN OR YOU'LL BE NEXT/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"That night, Gary slept in one of the barns of the Poké-Corral with his Arcanine, Blastoise and other Pokémon he'd captured during his journey. Arcanine was a huge fire-dog one did not simply defy, and said canine was so loyal he'd wake him up if he sensed anything; and any Pokémon seemed to be sensitive to the clown's presence anyway, like a Poliwag had once proven. Even if he'd forgotten that smell of something fouler than shit, trash and anything related, Pokémon wouldn't have to remember; they just knew. Gary would just say nostalgia hit him if he was ever asked by gramps why he'd decided to sleep curled up with the fire dog and water tortoise./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Ash arrived at Gary's house at 8am like they'd agreed, but the older youth wasn't found anywhere inside the house./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-That prick... he's probably trying a trick on us, Pikachu! That'd be so typical of him... GARY! WHERE ARE YOU?/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial; min-height: 14px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Gary heard a shout and his eyes flew open: he was late! Even if it was just Ash, it was embarrassing. Of course he'd forgotten the alarm clock in the bedroom! Damn.../span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"He tumbled inside his sleeping bag, tumbled on a protesting Arcanine and managed to slip out of the bag when he reached the entrance. He hadn't noticed when he'd been asleep, but Arcanine had managed to make it "extra comfortable" with a lot of fur filling; he kept running covered in hairballs from head to toe, trying to shake off the hay and hair concoction with no success. Ash was there! Oh no, his reputation was ruined!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Hey, Ashy-boy! -he tried to sound smug- I was testing your... search abilities!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-You mean you hid under a furry Pokémon, then rolled yourself into a haystack and therefore you look funny today? -Ash laughed at his friend's feeble attempt to hide his embarrassment. Of course Ash saw his cheeks turning a shade of pink- Hey, I've been covered in worse stuff than that, remember my Muk? -Gary opened his mouth to say something ironic, but Ash interrupted- But you still look hilarious!/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-You've looked "hilarious" more times than I have, Ashy! -Pikachu picked off some furballs on his pants's hem, empathizing with him on his peculiar predicamment./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-No, no! I'll do it myself, Pikachu! I don't need you to... -Gary shook his arms in a cross form, but it only made him look like a fluffy oversized chicken/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Oh, man, I can't stop laughing... -Ash had tears in his eyes- I wish I'd brought a camera! Where's Umbreon?/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Umbreon came running toward the door and rubbed her head on Gary's leg as greeting, getting herself some Arcanine hair on her head as well. She seemed happy to see Pikachu as well./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Umbreon prefers sleeping with gramps than with me for some reason... just like your Pikachu prefers your mom. Someday I'll conduct an investigation on Pokémon trainers's parents or guardians and Pokémon relationships, I'm really intrigued! /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-Me too! -they both shot a look at their Pokémon, and they ignored the owners./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"-All right, next stop, Pallet's small stream!/span/p 


	14. Chapter 14

After a long morning of bickering, professional and personal advice, motivational talk, reliving of funny moments of their childhood and showing their Pokémon their stories, Gary and Ash were somewhat tired but Ash wanted to do a final stop: he hadn't shown Pikachu the school, since his last tour had been during school hours and the director didn't want a Pikachu distracting the kids.

They came into the empty building,

-Wow... it's almost exactly the same as when we studied here! -Gary said, looking at the yellow walls of the main corridor; the only change was the new posters on the announcement columns; everything else, down to each classroom's window flowerpots and even some of the students's graffitty was the same.

-Ash... wanna look for the graffitty I made about you all those years ago?

-Gary, you suck at drawing, I bet they removed it because it was too ugly!

-Hey, I can't do miracles regarding the beauty of my model, Ashy-boy!

Ash glared. -Anyway, I bet it's not here anymore!

I say let's look for it! -he grabbed Ash by the arm and dragged him to the boys's bathroom stall Gary knew Ash used in primary school. Yes, he knew; they were each other's stalker.

-OH MY GOD! It's here! -Gary was red with laughter, and Pikachu and Umbreon thought the badly drawn concept of a stick figure Ash pooping was extremely funny as well.- The cleaning people seem to really like it, Ash! All other bathroom graffitty are gone!

-I gotta admit it's funny, but why did you do that, Gary? -Ash thought it was funny nowadays too, although back then he had grabbed Rattata poop and had shoved it into Gary's lunchbox after seeing the work of art. A temporary truce had occurred afterwards.

-I don't know, Ash! I was probably mad at you that day. I wouldn't do something like that anymore... at least not to my best friend!

Ash didn't expect this; he thought the one time Gary had recognized as a best friend had been a once-in-a-lifetime event. They smiled and stared into each others eyes for a moment. Pikachu jumped onto Ash's shoulder

-Pikachuuu! Chuu. -Pikachu pulled Ash's hair

-Oh, yeah, let's keep walking. Hey, let's go to the art classroom! Let's see what they're doing now!

On the way to the classroom, right before the door to the sports courts and the art classroom, some announcement columns were encountered by the trainers and their Pokémon. Something called Ash's memory back;

-Missing children and funerary announcements! -Ash gasped- Gary, a kid was killed last night almost next to my house! It seems this kid wasn't the only one... Scary, huh?

Gary paled as he recalled a warning. If Ash didn't remember and didn't notice anything he'd be immune, right? Himself, however, was a different story...

-I need the bathroom. -Gary declared, turning green, and ran into the bathroom with both Pokémon on his tail (Pikaaa! Breon!)

Sure, it's quite impressive that there's some psycho out there killing kids, but why would Gary, a scientist, get sick all of a sudden over it? He'd be fine, maybe it was food poisoning; it could happen to anyone.

Ash Ketchum studied the children. Each poster had a picture, the year the children were in and where they were from. Kaitlin, Bradley, Megan... the murdered child from yesterday's obituary wasn't here yet. He looked at the pictures again. How horrible. And then he noticed the names had changed.

Rob. Ellie. Sandra. He knew those names! He suddenly heard their voices in his head like a distant memory. (I'm Rob! I'm Ellie! I'm Sandra!) Impossible! He sweated cold. Kaitlin stuck out her tongue; Ash rubbed his eyes, sure he'd seen wrong, but now Kaitlin was Rob, Bradley was Ellie, Megan was Sandra... and there were two new ones: Matt and Tonfers from Gary's grade.

-Feeling left out, Ashy-boy?

Ash jumped in fright. He looked around, looking for the voice owner.

-Up here! Look up!

In a broken ceiling pannel, Ash found the gaze of a pair of hollow, black eyes which belonged to a grease-painted white face with a blood-red smile that hid putrid, yellow teeth.

-Hi! -whatever that was waved, and Ash remembered who this thing was. He swallowed a scream and fell to the floor- Don't worry about being left out! You can still pick a place on the board... except the fourth and fifth place on the row. They're already taken! But look-look! There's two places left! -it laughed- Maybe you can pick before your orphan friend does! -he made a joke trumpet sound- hahaha pick a card, Ashy boy! WAHAHAHA!

The clown threw several colorful cards at Ash, which fell on the floor around him in the form of blades, and then the beast faded into darkness. Ash was relieved of the paralysis he'd uncounciously found himself in. Then he realized who the "orphan friend" was.

-GARY! -he shouted, and ran toward the bathroom

Gary sat on the floor with his back leaning onto the wall, breathing heavily as Pikachu and Umbreon stood by his side. When Ash came in, Pikachu seemed to want to tell Ash Gary was in a pretty bad shape.

-Gary, are you ok? -he knelt and held him by the shoulders- Did you see anything strange? Didn't you hear what happened outside? Did you see the clown from when we were little?!

-Wha... What happened? Help me up, I need water... or sugar. Ash, let's get outta here! I have something to tell you!

-Gary, you look terrible! What happened? -professor Oak inquired when Umbreon, Pikachu and Ash came through the front door; the later was supporting Gary on his shoulder. He was now not only full of Arcanine hair, hay, grass but also sickly pale; not to mention being almost carried. This was embarrassing for Gary Oak.

-Nothing too bad, gramps, I guess I might have eaten a rotten berry or something during my trip here and didn't notice. -the professor raised an eyebrow but didn't object on the explaination. His grandson fighting an Arcanine and the fire dog poisoning him and making him roll into a haystack wasn't very realistic.- Ash, put me on my bed, you know where it is, right?

Once he had showered, eaten something professor Oak made him and had drank some tea, Gary seemed to be back to full health.

-Gramps knows how to do miracles about anything like this, right, gramps? Or ever wondered why I was rarely ever sick, Ashy? I did get sick, but gramps always knew what to do!

-Hah! Thank you Gary, but don't rely on that every time you come here, please! -the professor laughed, although he liked the recognition.

-I guess the people who take care of you since you are little know what makes you heal best, huh? -Ash smiled- My mom makes me feel so much better when I'm sick just by being there, too! I bet that's part of the magic.

After a while, Gary's grandfather was sure his grandson would be fine and left the room with Pikachu and Umbreon, since they both seemed to love the professor's company.

-So, what were you gonna tell me, Gary?

I'm not sure if I should... there's a chance it's better that you don't remember... that it's better you think it doesn't exist! Tell me if you think you know what I'm talking about.

I'd forgotten about a creepy clown for so long... until I saw it again, and I was afraid for the first time in I don't know how long..!

Check out the newspaper article on top of the Water Type Pokémon Portperties book... that will explain something about my reaction to the posters. Ash... I think we're being targeted again. But it didn't just kill us. We'd have to make it real, remember?

So it wasn't made up! -Ash told Gary what he saw at the announcement column- When did Matt and Tonfers... go? They appeared on the desd kids posters, but I thought they'd transfered schools!

Apparently, he and Tonfers went missing, but we were told they'd been transfered to another school because eight child murders was just too much for the town, and the murders suddenly stopped too... when WE stopped it.

You mean that clown thing might be wanting to get revenge on us?

I don't think it's about revenge... I'd say I was the only one who remembered it exists, so at first, it only targeted me and urged me to leave town, but I was sure you didn't remember it, so I'd only put you in danger if I said anything.

But I will always help you! I wouldn't want you to do it alone!

Still, I thought I'd be risking your life! And when you saw the posters, maybe the thing knew you could start remembering, and that's why it attacked you!

Hadn't we beaten it back then?

Remember your mom's box; this thing must come alive again and again every several years! We have to find a way to seal it permanently... We gotta get to its lair and leave any trace or source of it; not just to save our hides, but imagine all the kids that could die a horrible death if we don't!

I have a plan!

Let's hear it! You've saved my skin several times with your plans...

They would have failed without your calm, Gary!

I know! But what's your plan?

Remember it seems to reside at the pond? Why don't we bring our most powerful grass Pokémon and drain it for a while so we can sneak into the place this thing charges during those years? We cut its power with what's left of my mom's silver, and all that's left to beat is the beast-thing-whatever it is itself!

Sounds great! We'll have to convince our Pokémon to come though...

Hmm... we can bring them in Pokéballs and explain what's going on... I think we're not quite as easy to scare as when we were kids; I bet the fog trick won't work after all our travels and bad weather situations we've survived.

True! Well, How about a sleepover, like last time?

Sounds perfect! Your place! But... I'm pretty sure I won't fit on the Snorlax pouf anymore...

At the Poké Corral! -Ash said enthusiastically- Like old times's camping, surrounded by nature and Pokémon!

Gary began to see the positive side of camping out, too. Tonight would be fun.

-Ok, Ashy... the pond is drained, and as I suspected, there IS something beneath it. Same method as before! We hold hands if some kind of fog appears, and we don't force our Pokémon to come if they don't want to, but Venomoth will keep track of us, right Venomoth?

The moth seemed to agree. The other Pokémon didn't want to come but they looked concerned.

-Hey guys... we'll be fine! -Ash said, a little nervous- if anything serious happens, we know you will come to help us, so we'll have no chance of slipping, all right?

The Pokémon didn't even want to go near the hole in the middle of the pond. Gary noticed this image was even creepier without the pond water: the white water lillies were above them, and they were inside a hole about 6 feet deep, just like a tomb. The Pokémon looked sad, worried and even angry, like in Ash's Pidgeot's case, but it didn't dare approaching anyway. He was scared.

-Ash, I think it's better if we are linked by hand right when we enter... it seems like we won't be able to see for a while, even with the flashlights.

-All right. It seems narrow, too. -Ash took Gary's hand and started strolling to the well- I'll go front, you back.

Gary nodded. Something in his hand's demeanor told Ash he wasn't all that convinced of his position.

 _Dark! Narrow! Scary! Well of the three features._

You'd rather go in front? -Ash turned to see his friend's expression. He was serious, but he was also sad.

What if we fail? Then, everything we had to endure would have been for nothing? Maybe it wasn't as bad for you but... do you have any idea of the storms I had to go through as a kid? -Gary started shaking in rage- Ever wondered what it was like to feel that nobody around you cared what you thought as a person?

Gary... what's going on? Why are you telling me this now? I actually never realized you ever felt that way; you always looked confident, and even arrogant to me back then.

Of course not! But we can't let this thing win! When I was a kid, I used to think about my parents often... how they were dead, and that maybe I could have stopped it, but I didn't. It drove me to be so much more than a frightened, sad kid; I wouldn't have had the drive to prove I existed for a good reason! -tears started raining from his eyes. Ash was getting scared this might get out of control; this wasn't normal in Gary, and he was nearly breaking his hand with his, but didn't let go anyway- but I am sure most kids are not like me... -Gary raised his voice- they don't have what I have and usually only end up dead!

Gary... remember it targeted me too, back then. It wasn't because you deserved to be punished or die... I know you and you're a good guy; this thing is evil, and it's not punishing anyone; it's all a trick for it to eat.

Either way... help me beat this! Nobody deserves to be driven to want to die!

I've never wished to die, but I'm sure your struggles have made you this great, Gary... Now it's time for me to share a secret: I've always admired you in a way. And a rainbow appears only after a storm, right? And since you went through so much, you might be able to tell the truth appart from illusion easier than me.

Gary smiled and dried his remaining tears. He'd go in front; this time, he took Ash's hand and looked at him in the eye

-Are you ready?

-Whenever you are! -Ash smiled. Of course Gary should take the lead. Only somebody like him, who had stood up to his nightmares alone, could beat something as big and overfed as fear itself; only those who recognize they're scared can begin to beat the source and become masters of fear and recognizers of truth. He'd experienced more fear than Ash himself, even if you counted his adventures with legendary Pokémon and how they nearly killed him; Ash had also experienced more of friendship and empathy than Gary to know for sure that Ash Ketchum would risk his life if it was to save his friends's and his town. They entwined fingers and took a step into the well. Then a second, and third, a fourth, and before they knew they had vanished from their Pokémon's sight into the darkness.

The sound of footsteps on muddy terrain was all Ash and Gary could hear after a short time into the cavernous hole that seemed to go on into darkness forever.

-Gary, I can no longer see the entrance! Can you see anything? I don't dare take off my eyes off our backs...

-I can't... turn off your flashlight; what if we're stuck without batteries? I brought a spare, but still...

Ash turned off his flashlight and was terrified to find total darkness: no moon, no stars, no Team Rocket trying to steal... they were better than this; at least they weren't murderers... most of all, no Pikachu. Just him and Gary; the older guy was his only lifeline now; he felt like he was being engulfed by a vacuum, and more so because Gary's hand was growing colder, like he was almost only skin and bones.

Gary didn't like the idea of turning off the back flashlight, but this tunnel seemed to go on for pretty long. He was afraid that once they ran out of batteries, he could fall into a trench and drag Ash with him on the way down. What if there was an obstacle and he couldn't see it? Or something other than the clown down here? The mud sometimes cracked, and he'd pointed the flashlight on it just to make sure the sounds came from little bones of former preys, but sometimes the bones were way too big for belonging to mice, Rattatas and rats.

Soon enough, Gary hit something with a pudding-like texture and jumped. Or at least tried to, because a white hand with red and yellow pustules held his left foot, and its grip was very strong.

-Ash, I'm trapped! What's behind us? -the hand tried to get him to the floor and appart from Ash- USE THE FLASHLIGHT NOW!

Ash illuminated a white, slimy-looking body of what looked like a deformed person with no legs, tiny arms and a long neck, on top of which was a head with huge, zebra-like teeth and two holes instead of eyes. His first reflex was to run, but tripped when he felt Gary still attached to his hand.

-Ash, this thing is too strong! we can't run! Whatever you saw, it's probably an illusion, so convince yourself it's not there and it'll go away!

But it didn't. Ash saw the slime man come closer and closer, baring its teeth as the boy sweated, trying harder to deny its existence. Gary screamed in pain as his ankle spraint;

-Forget it, Gary! We have to attack! This is real! Grab the silver knife, quick! Stab it and I'll toss the silver tray on its head -he searched the bag as the teeth started dripping with green, putrid saliva. Those teeth weren't sharp, but with the right aim, they could bite off his nose at least. He needed aim. Like on his and Gary's first real-life battle. He hit the thing on the head, but another hand came out of the ground to grab Ash. He dodged it, but Gary had trouble with the hand holding his foot; Ash came by his side and kicked the hand savagely in a fit of hysterical fear; it let Gary go with a yelp, and another pair of hands came from the ground; Gary cut them with the silver knife, and all that was left now was the head and body; Ash dragged Gary into the back of it, and inserted a silver tray blow on its neck while Gary stabbed its body; it turned around to bite them, but Gary slit its throat before it could make a move, and it turned to dust after it burst into flame; Gary took it as an oportunity to see the surroundings while Ash couldn't help but fall on the floor and stare in awe.

-What the fuck was that?! -Ash muttered- That wasn't the clown... could it be some of the things we see are real?

-None of them had actually physically attacked us, Ash... I doubt it. But this place has more monsters than we first thought, we gotta be more careful. I'll pay more attention to the floor now... the rotten hand spraint my ankle and now every step I take hurts like hell... if I fall down and can't continue, save yourself, ok, Ashy?

-No way.

-Stubborn as always. Anyway, the tunnel goes into a bigger chamber in a few meters; let's see what's in there...

Said chamber was indeed large, and had a lot of spiderwebs. Some of them were holding the skeletons of a few children.

-We were never wrong, Ashy -Gary whispered as he held Ash's hand tighter- here are all of them... incluiding the recent ones -he pointed at a pile of more recent dead bodies in horror. Ash began to cry-

-Welcome to my house! I didn't order delivery service, but I'll gladly take it... -a spider the size of a small car came out of a hole in the corner- I can tell I won't be able to move after eating so much young human flesh!

Gary gritted his teeth, and the spider burst into a bright light. Ash got hipnotized by it, but Gary knew what this was about and as he let go of Ash's hand, dug the silver knife into the spider's light source with both hands. It twisted and turned to Gary, who then threw a stone.

-Come and get it! You'll never eat anyone or anything ever again! Today we finish you, and you know we can!

Hearing Gary's voice, Ash woke from a dream that kept him statue still: his dream of circus, candy, colorful balloons and his Pokémon. Of Misty, Brock, Tracy and the others all going to see a show with Wabuffets and Bellossoms.

The popcorn he'd just ordered got dyed in a red substance that smelled like iron, and the confetti that blurred his vision faded as Ash took a gasp at reality.

Gary was in a hand-to-hand combat with an eight "handed" spider. He had a cut on the arm that probably needed stitches and he winced with each left foot step. Ash ran into action and flung the bag at the spider from behind to hit it square on the head. Gary pulled away from its grip, as it had already began to catch him in a spiderweb coccoon.

The spider turned to Ash and snatched the bag off his hands. Ash began to panic, but then saw a huge femur bone and remembered the Marowak: they attacked with bone boomerangs.

-Now you're gonna be killed by your own prey! I bet this is gonna be embarrassing!

The spider turned to Gary again as Ash threw the bone; the spider leg hit Gary on top of the head and the bone hit the spider on said leg and ripped it off, causing a light to flood into the chamber, but Ash refrained to look directly into it; he hoped Gary'd do the same.

He didn't know Gary couldn't do that anymore.

Ash ran and used the ripped leg opening to bash the spider's brain in, and finally managed to cut its head off, and it turned to dust, just like the monster they'd beaten back in the tunnel.

Why wasn't Gary moving? Perhaps that's why he hadn't been attacked anymore?

Ash checked for a pulse and found it. He was uncouncious, had a spraint ancle, a cut on the arm, a huge bruise on the forehead, and didn't look like he'd wake up soon. Ash would have to carry him, but what if anything happened to him?

Then it occurred to him.

VENOMOTH!

It echoed. Would the moth hear him? Or Gary's Arcanine? The flashlight had broken when Ash had hit the spiderclown on the head with the bag once the tray wasn't available.

But soon, Umbreon appeared at the tunnel and Meganium and Pikachu behind her.

-Guys... thank you for standing by -Ash said, moved- help me get Gary outta here!

-Breonbreonbreonbreoooon! -Umbreon laid on top of Gary-

-Don't worry Umbreon, he'll be ok... he's warm and breathing, see? His chest still goes up and down. He just fainted. I remember having fainted once in front of him and he thought I was dead -Ash laughed, embarrassed- now, let's move him. Meganium, can you carry all four of us out of here? Umbreon and Pikachu can light the way!

Ash was beaming. He could barely believe it, but he and Gary had just beaten IT! That made them so much more than Pokémon Masters or Pokémon researchers. That made them real heroes even if they'd never get any recognition; they knew, and they'd know there's nothing invincible or more powerful than their own minds for the rest of their lives.

Ash held Gary close as they rode on Meganium. It was all over. Neither of them would have to run for their lives anymore.

-Ash, what happened!? -Delia Ketchum and professor Oak were having lunch when they saw the half-alive, mud covered Gary Oak Ash's equally dirty arms on a mud-covered Meganium.

-We had an accident... where's the hospital?

After several hours, Gary woke up from a deep sleep to find Ash Ketchum's head asleep on his hospital robe clad stomach as a pillow and his hand clasped in his own, the other with a serum syringe in it. He was also on a hospital bed. He was confused for a moment, but then the memories hit him. It was already dark outside and they were still alive, but had it been worth the trip?

Ash looked dumber when he was asleep, but it was sweet of him to have stayed with him after dark even when he was probably tired himself, not to mention saving his life when he could have probably just run away. He smiled, let go of Ash's hand and pushed a lock of black hair off his friend's forehead gently, hoping he wouldn't wake up just then. No such luck; Ash even noticed the gesture.

-Hey, Gary. Glad to see you're up.

Gary held back the surprise and asked directly if the thing was gone.

-It is. Forever. Thanks to us. It will never come back, I'm sure of it, all thanks to your courage and our combined strenght. We're invincible, Gary.

-This means all of our dreams have come true, doesn't it?

-All of our current dreams, and we'll make our future dreams come true as well, you'll see.

-With his thing gone... I'm free, Ash, thank you.

-So am I, Gary... there's nothing holding us back anymore.

The two friends took a long look at each other's beaming eyes and embraced.

END


End file.
